Society and the state Flashcards
What liberal idea of society do multiculturalists reject?
That society is made up of atomistic individuals, whose personality has been shaped ‘autonomously’.
What is the significant disagreement over what constitutes a community between multiculturalism and communitarianism?
Multiculturalism: Psychological and cultural criteria
Communitarianism: Economic and geographical criteria
Examples of communities according to communitarians
Farming communities of East Anglia.
Former mining communities of North East England and South Wales.
Examples of communities according to multiculturalists
‘The gay community’
‘The Jewish community’
The Irish community’
Etc.
According to the 2011 census, what percentage of the UK population were BAME?
14%
According to the 2011 census, what percentage of Greater London residents were BAME?
More than 40%
According to the 2011 census, what percentage of Greater London residents did not speak English as their first language?
21%
According to the 2011 census, which UK cities had more than 20% of residents being Muslim?
London, Birmingham and Bradford
What is the view of multiculturalists of the UK being diverse?
It benefits society
According to both Parekh and Modood, UK’s diverse data represents a glorious opportunity to do what?
Broaden the understanding of all citizens and thus create a society where there is greater tolerance and wisdom.
According to Berlin, exposure to other cultures makes us what?
More conscious of those cultures, more aware of the distinctive character of our own culture, and more likely to consider ways in which it can be refined.
What is cultural relativism?
A belief that the values and beliefs of particular culture should be judged by the context of that culture alone, and that the state should not decree any single culture as morally superior.
What did Perekh observe in relation to competition in a multicultural society?
Multicultural societies would be ‘less a competition, more a conversation… in which each community would learn from each other’.
Why did Perekh assert that the emergence of multicultural societies should be welcomed?
To enrich and develop each of the cultures concerned.
Which two types of state response that are possible following the emergence of multicultural societies do multiculturalists reject?
Assimilation
Individualist integration
What is the aim of state sponsored assimilation?
To encourage minorities to ‘blend in’ with the existing majority culture and to suppress their native culture.
The aim being to cement a more cohesive, mono-cultural society, free of segregation.
What would happen to faith school in a country where assimilation is practiced?
Unsupported and proscribed (banned)
Example of a French assimilationist policy?
French ban on Muslim women wearing the burkha in public places.
Which countries practice the individualist integration response and since when?
UK and USA
Since the 1960’s
Which country practices the assimilationist response?
France
What will an individualist integration response insist on?
A prevailing dominant culture, usually of a liberal-individualist character, and encourage those from minority cultures to adapt to it in return for all the trappings of a liberal state.
As opposed to assimilation, what will individualist integration not object to?
Individuals worshipping ‘alternative’ religions or dressing in a way that denotes ‘other’ cultures, just as long as those individuals acknowledge that, in the public sector, a single set of cultural values (usually liberal) must prevail.
As part of the same plan to integrate individuals from ‘other’ cultures, the individualist-integration state might illegalise what?
Overt racial or cultural discrimination
What is value pluralism?
Linked to Isiah Berlin, this term denotes that there is a range of ‘absolute’ values- such as liberty, equality and compassion- prevalent in liberal democracies. But it is not for the liberal state to decree any one of them as more important than another.
