Multiculturalism As A Policy In Postcolonial Countries

Timetable

Module aim (aims)

Reflection on specific cases of contemporary approaches towards cultural, racial, social and ethnic diversity in socio-cultural sciences and nation-states policy.Acquainting students with theoretical and practical issues and terminology such as the plural society thesis, concept of cultural pluralism and multicultural, multiracial, inter-ethnic politics, preferential policies, affirmative action policies, diverse ethnic groups status, citizenship, social mobility, hegemony, legitimization, discrimination and “positive” or “reverse” discrimanation, migration, and minorities-majorities interplay in different countries.

Pre-requisites in terms of knowledge, skills and social competences (where relevant)

Syllabus

1. Approaches towards multiculturality and ethnic diversity in social and human sciences (social and cultural anthropology, sociology, social economy, social geography, history, political sciences, philosophy, and their critical subdisciplines): discussion and critique of terminology, discourses, and their impact on social imaginaries/ representations (so-called public and private discourses)
2. Habituses and power relations – social imaginaries and memory; axiological sources of socio-economical and ethno-racial stratification; legitimisation of power and hegemony; regimes of identity – comparative analysis based on ethnographical and historical data, as well as public discourse (e.g. newspapers) deconstruction
3. Relation to Otherness. Outlining different models of multiculturality/cultural plurality; concepts of political ethnicity, multicultural politics, cultural differentness, nationalism, discrimination, affirmative and preferential policies, social mobility and equality
4. Local power relation (from a bottom-up perspective). Social, ethnic, racial, and economic stratification and exclusions on the background of imaginaries of social roles of individuals and groups. Discussing different approaches and attitudes towards belonging to the community in the context of material status and social prestige (communal familiarity, cultural intimacy, social utility; citizenship, hierarchies of power, respect, and insolence; conformism, agency)
5. Ethnic and racial segregation, stratification, and exclusion in society and space – cases from different countries.
6. Conclusion: Tasks of anthropology in the area of multiculturality and social diversification and stratification. Promoting qualitative research methods and bottom-up perspective in science, administration, and local activity.

Assessment: evaluation of overall activity and final essay

Reading list

Obligatory
1. Vertovec S., Wessendorf S. (eds.), The Multiculturalism Backlash. European Discourses, Policies and Practices, London-New York.
2. Jakubowicz A., (1981) State and Ethnicity: Multiculturalism as Ideology, "Australia and New Zealand Journal of Sociology" Vol. 17, No 3 (November).
3. Barth F. (1969) “Introduction.” [in:] Fredrik Barth, ed., Ethnic Groups and Boundaries. The Social Organization of Cultural Difference. Oslo: Universitetsforlaget (Scandinavian University Press).
4. McMahon R. (2016) The Races of Europe: Construction of National Identities in the Social Sciences, 1839–1939, London: Palgrave Macmillan.
5. Alvarez, Jr. R. R. 1995, The Mexican-Us Border: The Making of an Anthropology of Borderlands, Annual Review of Anthropology, Vol. 24 (1995), pp. 447-470.
6. Hoodfar H., (1997) The Veil in Their Minds and on Our Heads: Veiling Practices and Muslim Women. [IN:] edited by L. Lowe and D. Lloyd "The Politics of Culture in the Shadow of Capital." Duke University Press, pp. 248- 279.
7. Eriksen T.H., (2002) Ethnicity and Nationalism, London-Sterling, Virginia: Pluto Press.
Optional
1. Anderson B. (1991) Imagined Communities. Reflections on Origin and Spread of Nationalism, London-New York: Verso.
2. MacCannell D. 1992, Empty Meeting Grounds: The Tourist Papers, Routledge: London & New York, ch. 5 “White culture”, pp. 121-146.