INTEGRIM

INTEGRIM SCIENTIFIC THEMATIC WORKSHOP

Work Package 2: Citizenship and Political Participation

Wednesday, 11 June 2014

CEDEM, University of Liège, Belgium

 

The Centre for Ethnic and Migration Studies (CEDEM) of the University of Liège is pleased to announce the second scientific thematic workshop organized by the working group Citizenship and Political Participation on “Multicultural Policies in Federated Entities”.

Contemporary societies are de facto multicultural and display a wide variety of ethnic, racial, cultural, national and religious affiliations and identities. This diversity is not going to disappear in the foreseeable future. The standardization of mass culture is certainly a trend that cannot be denied. But at the same time, various forms of cultural, ethnic, national, religious and post-national identities have emerged in the public sphere, especially at the local level, and are reconstructing themselves as a response to the standardization trend. In a book published in 1995, the American historian, David Hollinger, introduced the expression “diversification of diversity” to describe the dynamics of cultures and identities in the United States context (Hollinger 1995). By analogy, one could claim that the European Union has also entered a process of “diversification of its diversity”, which follows specific patterns and calls to some extent for a specific European debate about European forms of diversity or about European diversities (Martiniello 2006, 2011). Recently, Steven Vertovec has coined the expression “super-diversity” to refer to the extension and deepening of diversity in contemporary societies (Vertovec 2007).

The one-day seminar will address the links between citizenship and multiculturalism from a particular perspective but looking at the policy dimension. It will give the opportunity to INTEGRIM Early Stage Researchers to present their dissertation project. It will also examine and compare policies designed and implemented in order to manage immigration related cultural diversity in a sample of federated entities of several European and non-European federal countries. The contributions will focus on three main issues: Language diversity, religious diversity and artistic diversity

In each of the countries under examination, we will contrast 2 federated entities characterised by different approaches of diversity:

‐        Belgium: Flanders and Wallonia-Brussels Federation (Corinne Torrekens, Free University Brussels)

‐        Spain: Catalonia and Basque Country (Mónica Ibáñez, University of Burgos)

‐        Switzerland: Zurich and Neuchatel (Gianni D’Amato, University of Neuchatel)

‐        Germany: Hesse and Bavaria: (Caroline Schultz, University of Osnabrück)

‐        Canada: Quebec and Ontario (Viktor Armony, UQAM)

‐        USA: California and Texas (Katia Long, Free University Brussels)

‐        Australia: Queensland and New South Wales (Lesleyanne Hawthorne, University of Melbourne)

This workshop is open to professors, researchers, MA students, PhD students. The attendance is free but registration is requested before 1st June 2014. Please send an email to eb.ca1711633137.glu@1711633137risG.1711633137ainoS1711633137

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