The browser you are using is not supported by this website. All versions of Internet Explorer are no longer supported, either by us or Microsoft (read more here: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/windows/end-of-ie-support).

Please use a modern browser to fully experience our website, such as the newest versions of Edge, Chrome, Firefox or Safari etc.

‘And People's Concerns Were Genuine: Why Didn't We Listen More?’: Nationalism, Multiculturalism and Recognition in Europe

På svenska

Author

  • Umut Ozkirimli

Summary, in English

The aim of this article is to draw attention to the dangerous, indeed poisonous, nature of the current debates on immigration and multiculturalism in today’s ‘omniphobic’ Europe, plagued not only by a severe economic crisis, but also a more general normative crisis, a ‘crisis of values’ so to speak, which has been consistently overlooked or manipulated by politicians and academics alike, or reduced to an epiphenomenon bound to disappear when financial balances are restored. I will argue in this context that nationalism (in some cases even outright racism) is key to understanding this crisis, a catalyst acting either as a cause or a symptom, and almost always as a profound source of legitimacy. Following a brief critique of the literature on the purported ‘death’ of multiculturalism—the academic side of the same coin—the article concludes by sketching the normative contours of an alternative model of multiculturalism, one that stresses the importance of the ideas of recognition, redistribution and participation.

Publishing year

2012

Language

English

Pages

307-321

Publication/Series

Journal of Contemporary European Studies

Volume

20

Issue

4

Document type

Journal article

Publisher

Routledge

Topic

  • Social Sciences Interdisciplinary
  • Other Social Sciences

Keywords

  • multiculturalism
  • nationalism
  • pluralism
  • recognition
  • Europe

Status

Published

ISBN/ISSN/Other

  • ISSN: 1478-2804