Multicultural Citizenship

According to a view of citizenship that prioritizes nationhood and a common culture, its hallmark is homogeneity, a basic sameness in manners, beliefs, and experiences. From this follows that the notion of multicultural citizenship is inherently a paradox and a provocation. It seems to defy the integrationist and centrist thrall of citizenship. However, from multicultural citizenship’s point of view, as expressed by thinkers such as Will Kymlicka, abandoning citizenship’s constitutive monoculture principle may be required for the sake of the ideal of equality that fires the dynamics of modern citizenship. This chapter discusses the role of multiculturalism in previous decades right up to today. What runs under the labels of “social justice” and “identity politics”, whether race- or gender-based, marks a new stage in the evolution of multiculturalism, which is other than liberal and for which the integrationist citizenship idiom appears inadequate.