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Reconciling the Solitudes: Essays on Canadian Federalism and Nationalism.
... To endorse any particular view would be favouritism and discriminatory, and the worry -perhaps taken to an obsessive extreme -is that views not endorsed with of cial status would not be treated with equal respect. Fairness in such a view consists in coming up with the right decision-making procedures, not the right decisions -for there are no real right decisions, apart from what individuals choose for their own purposes (Taylor 1985b(Taylor , 1989(Taylor , 1995a. ...
... To endorse any particular view would be favouritism and discriminatory, and the worry -perhaps taken to an obsessive extreme -is that views not endorsed with of cial status would not be treated with equal respect. Fairness in such a view consists in coming up with the right decision-making procedures, not the right decisions -for there are no real right decisions, apart from what individuals choose for their own purposes (Taylor 1985b(Taylor , 1989(Taylor , 1995a. ...
... To endorse any particular view would be favouritism and discriminatory, and the worry -perhaps taken to an obsessive extreme -is that views not endorsed with of cial status would not be treated with equal respect. Fairness in such a view consists in coming up with the right decision-making procedures, not the right decisions -for there are no real right decisions, apart from what individuals choose for their own purposes (Taylor 1985b(Taylor , 1989(Taylor , 1995a. ...
My aim in this paper is to chart what I see as parallels between the ontology of self in Charles Taylor’s work and that of various Buddhist ‘no-self’ views, along with parallels between Taylor’s commitment to reviving republican ideas (in a ‘communitarian’ form) and some aspects of Buddhist ethics.
... Nor can it do so unless some one theorist is chosen as its representative. Perhaps the best Anglophone candidate for such a position is Charles Taylor, yet Taylor considers the liberal-communitarian debate to have been conducted at 'cross-purposes', with regard both to 'ontological' issues of social theory and to moral or 'advocacy' issues (Taylor 1989). What others call his communitarianism owes something to his Catholicism, but its philosophical sources are in Germany: Romanticism, Heidegger and, above all, Hegel. ...
... Such Romanticism, and Hegel's partial reflection of some of its ideas, certainly informs Taylor's own social theory. It also informs his most striking expression of political advocacy, his hope that a benign "politics of recognition" (Taylor 1994) between culturally distinct political groups can be conducted according to a transcultural norm. ...
... Finally, MacIntyre is, although a political realist, also a political perfectionist. Communitarians may be supporters of the British Labour Party (Miller 1990) or Canadian New Democratic Party (Beiner 1992;Taylor 1993) but, even so, communitarianism cannot but be politically conservative. Communitarians want to conserve communities. ...
Alasdair MacIntyre is an Aristotelian critic of communitarianism, which he understands to be committed to the politics of the capitalist and bureaucratic nation-state. The politics he proposes instead is based in the resistance to managerial institutions of what he calls ‘practices’, because these are schools of virtue. This shares little with the communitarianism of a Taylor or the Aristotelianism of a Gadamer. Although practices require formal institutions. MacIntyre opposes such conservative politics. Conventional accounts of a ‘liberal-communitarian debate’ in political philosophy face the dilemma that Alasdair MacIntyre, often identified as a paradigmatic communitarian, has consistently and emphatically repudiated this characterization. Although neo-Aristotelianism is sometimes seen as a philosophical warrant for communitarian politics, MacIntyre’s Aristotelianism is opposed to communitarianism. This paper explores the rationale of that opposition.
... These psychocultural and political images are used to categorize people from the other community as an outgroup (Greer 1985: 275-292;Harris 1972: 178). Québec's role in Canada's constitutional debate centers around Québec's status as a distinct society or as one of ten equal provinces (Watts and Brown 1991;Taylor 1993;Monahan 1991). The nature of debate and form of conflict management in these two regions create unique political cultures. ...
... On the one hand, up to the 1960s, Quebec nationalism was oriented toward ensuring the survival of the community, conceived primarily through its religion, language, and cultural traditions; by and large, immigration was seen as a threat to Quebec's cultural survival (Bouchard 2001). However, broader societal changes brought about a transformation of Quebec nationalism (Taylor 1993;Bouchard 2001). The Quiet Revolution, a period of important socio-political and socio-cultural change in Quebec in the 1960s, led to a major reconstruction of Quebec identity: Quebec national identity gradually stopped being conceived in terms of ethno-cultural attributes, and instead became articulated in terms of citizenship and in relation to the Quebec state and territory (Breton 1988;Kalin and Berry 1995). ...
It is well documented that the strength of national attachment relates to attitudes toward ethnocultural diversity, and that the direction of the relationship varies across national contexts. Yet, little attention has been given to the fact that attachments may not be expressed solely at the national level. In federal and multinational states, individuals can express attachment to the country and to its territorial units. This study investigates the relationship between (national and provincial) attachments and attitudes toward ethnocultural diversity in the Canadian federation. Our findings indicate that stronger attachments to Canada lead to more positive attitudes toward ethnocultural diversity in all provinces. They also demonstrate that provincial attachments relate to attitudes toward ethnocultural diversity both in a minority nation provincial context (Quebec) and in other provinces (Alberta and Saskatchewan), but that the direction of this relationship can be of opposite direction than that for attachment to Canada.
... Fourthly, institutional functioning is based on norms. Some scholars even argue that social institutions are just codes of norms (social conventions, rules) rather than agencies and organizations (North 1990(North , 1992Schotter 1981;Taylor 1985Taylor , 1993. Norms define the rules of people's behavior within the framework of specific institutions and the very framework of the institutions-a set of situations and spheres of life in which people must behave in accordance with a given institution's norms. ...
Introduction describes the main aim of the volume as to present a novel approach to the study of social evolution. This approach is based on a look at, and analysis of social evolution through the evolution of social institutions associated with the rise and development of social complexity. Evolution is defined as the process of structural change. Within this framework, the society, or culture, is seen as a system composed of a great number of various social institutions that are interacting and changing. As a result, the whole structure of society is changing, that is evolving. Evolution does not have any particular direction, as any significant (that is, transforming the societal structure in any direction) change is evolutionary. Introduction gives an outline of the history of the notion of social institution and its conceptualization, and describes social institutions’ main characteristics and functions. It also summarizes the volume’s theoretical chapters and case studies.
... Groepe kan egter verskil ten opsigte van die tipe bedeling wat hulle behoeftes die beste bevredig afhangende van hulle getalle, territoriale konsentrasie en geskiedenis. Taylor (1993) praat in hierdie verband van die beginsel van diep diversiteit. Volgens Taylor is die definiërende beginsel van ʼn ware multikulturele staat dat die staat nie alleen erken dat sy burgers ten opsigte van taal en kultuur verskil nie, maar dat hulle aspirasies vir die tipe verhouding wat hulle met die oorkoepelende staat wil hê en die tipe multikulturele burgerskap wat aan hulle behoeftes voldoen, kan verskil. ...
This study investigated relationships between national and ethnic identities in eleven countries of the Southern African Development Community (SADC). Ethnic versus national identification, experiences of unfair treatment of ethnic groups, and like versus dislike of out-group neighbours were investigated. Round 6 Afrobarometer surveys data from Botswana (n = 1 200), Lesotho (n = 1 200), Madagascar (n = 1 200); Malawi (n = 2 400), Mauritius (n = 1 200), Mozambique (n = 2 400), Namibia (n = 1 200), South Africa (n = 2 400), Tanzania (n = 2 400), Zambia (n = 1 200), and Zimbabwe (n = 2 400) were utilised for the analysis. Majorities of respondents in most countries, especially in those with a dominant majority group, identified equally as much with the nation and ethnic group, or more with the nation. However, ethnic identities remain relevant despite nation-building strategies, even in relatively ethno-culturally homogeneous countries. Ethnic identity salience was enhanced by unfair treatment. Findings suggest recognition and accommodation of diversity to be a prospective strategy to foster stability and peace.
... Ele aponta para a criação de um novo diálogo entre teoria política e antropologia, baseado no que Charles Taylor denomina "diversidades profundas"(Taylor 1993): uma pluralidade de maneiras de fazer parte, de ser, mas que não excluem um sentimento de vinculação real entre as pessoas, mesmo elas não estando ligadas de forma abrangente, uniforme, primordial ou imutável.19 Por essa via, tanto teóricos da política, quanto antropólogos (e, eu diria, também juristas) terão de inventar um novo modo de pensar, receptivo às particularidades, às individualidades, às estranhezas, mas também capaz de reconhecer abrangências mutáveis, típicas das novas configurações sociopolíticas, compostas por heterogeneidades instáveis. ...
... Instead, he observes the emerging of a new dialogue between political theory and anthropology, one which is based in what Taylor (1993) calls 'deep diversity': a plurality of ways of being and belonging that do not exclude a real sense of bonding among people, even if they are not linked in a comprehensive, uniform, primordial, or immutable way. ...
This book offers new perspectives on global phenomena that play a major role in today’s society and deeply shape the actions of individuals, organizations and nations. In a complex and rapidly changing environment, decision-makers need to gain a better understanding of global phenomena to adapt and to anticipate the evolution of the global context. The authors—ten renowned international scholars of anthropology, economics, law, management and political science—propose an interdisciplinary and comparative approach to social sciences. They analyse how international phenomena, such as globalisation or transnationalisation, transform the disciplines of social sciences from an epistemological standpoint. Explaining what ‘global' means in difference disciplines, the authors analyse several global phenomena that characterise today’s international environment such as the circulation of norms and ideas, the linkages between war and globalization, corporate governance, and the impact of multinational enterprises on sustainable development and poverty reduction. Providing examples of analytical disciplinary approaches and guidelines for decision-makers in a fast-changing global context this book will be useful to scholars and students of anthropology, economics, law, management and political science as well as practitioners in the private and public sectors.
... Instead, he observes the emerging of a new dialogue between political theory and anthropology, one which is based in what Taylor (1993) calls 'deep diversity': a plurality of ways of being and belonging that do not exclude a real sense of bonding among people, even if they are not linked in a comprehensive, uniform, primordial, or immutable way. ...
This paper deals with the issue of ‘Global’ and ‘globalization’ in anthropology, as seen as crucial approaches to ‘circulation’. The discipline, familiar with the study of ‘remote’, ‘primitive’, ‘isolated’ and non-Western societies and culture, has recently jumped in the train of Globalization Studies. But while many scholars believe that Globalization is responsible of a ‘mobility turn’ in anthropology, this paper recalls that, rather explicitly or more discreetly, the idea and concept of circulation and the corresponding methodology are as ancient as anthropology itself. Yet, one must recognize that the issue of ‘Global’ has nevertheless induced profound changes in the way of making anthropology, and not only in terms of circulation.
... As a continuous force driving its economy and society, the concept of regionalism has underpinned most writings on Canadian politics over the last half-century, especially amid tumultuous periods. The most heightened of these existential crises surrounded Quebec nationalism and secessionism, which scholars addressed from a variety of lenses, including philosophical (Taylor, 1993), institutional (Gagnon and Iacovino, 2007) and political (McRoberts, 1997). Beyond Quebec and its influence on national unity, Canadian political scientists have examined regionalism as a prevailing force in other parts of the country. ...
This review essay identifies major monographs about the study of government and political institutions in Canada published in English over the past 50 years. Our review is woven around a general argument that key books about Canadian political life have mirrored the evolution of the discipline in the country as a whole. For instance, important books on federalism were written at turning points in Canada's constitutional history, while the recent uptick in social diversity and political communication studies mirrors broader societal trends. Equally, greater diversity in hiring within the academy has contributed to a broadening of subject matter, perspectives, methodologies and authorship. Thus, we explore the intersection between scholarship and society, with political scientists and their books as much products of their time as they have been contributors to the evolution of the political world around them. The sources that we identify have given shape to the study and practice of Canadian domestic politics.
... L Historiquement, deux modèles schématiques majeurs structurent le discours identitaire dans la société québécoise. Le premier, sous forme d'un diptyque, pourrait être métaphoriquement désigné, en empruntant les termes de Charles Taylor, par le modèle des « deux solitudes » (TAYLOR, 1993). Ce modèle schématique qui a balisé le discours identitaire entre le milieu du dix-neuvième siècle et la seconde partie du vingtième siècle avait divisé la population du Québec en deux groupes identitaires : une entité « canadienne-française », d'une part, et une entité « canadienne-anglaise », d'autre part. ...
Résumé
Le triptyque : francophone, anglophone et allophone traverse nombre de discours populaires et d’écrits universitaires qui renvoient à la composition démographique du Québec. En fait, ces trois qualificatifs tiennent lieu de catégorisation identitaire de la société québécoise. Par eux chaque membre de cette société se voit assigné une identité qui le définit par rapport au reste des résidents du Québec. L’étude que voici interroge les modalités d’assignation de cette identité ainsi que sa réception. En se focalisant sur le label de francophone , elle rend compte de la discordance dans l’entendement de ce qualificatif entre les intellectuels originaires de l’Afrique subsaharienne et le groupe démographique dominant au Québec. Ce faisant, elle met à nu la dimension conflictuelle et l’enjeu social qui se dégagent de l’usage de cet attribut identitaire.
In this article, I explain and defend the concept of multicultural nationhood. Multicultural nationhood accounts for how a nation can have a cohesive identity despite being internally diverse. In Canada, the challenge of nation-building despite the country’s diversity has prompted reflection on how to conceive of the national identity. The two most influential theories of multiculturalism to come from Canada, those of Charles Taylor and Will Kymlicka, emerged through consideration of Canada’s diversity, particularly the place of Québécois, Indigenous peoples, and immigrants in society. I begin by synthesizing Taylor’s and Kymlicka’s theories. I then propose a new subjective definition of nation, wherein the character of a nation is determined by how its members conceive of themselves. Once these concepts are explained, they are combined in an account of multicultural nationhood. Multicultural nationhood involves the cultivation of a national identity wherein various cultural groups are recognized as constitutive of the nation.
Societies are systems composed of a great number of various social institutions that interact and change, which results in that the whole structure of societies changes. This is what social evolution is – the process of structural change. Evolution does not have any particular
direction: any significant, that is, transforming change is evolutionary. Along with complexity measured in levels of political integration, societies as systems of social institutions have yet another fundamental characteristic that can be called a ‘basic principle of societal organization’. The principle of organization a society embodies depends on the way its institutions relate to one another. Specifically, two basic principles can be distinguished here: heterarchy, whereby elements are unranked or can be ranked in different ways, and its opposite – homoarchy, whereby elements in most contexts are ordered mainly according to one principal hierarchical relationship. Homoarchy and heterarchy represent most universal, ‘pure’ (generalized) principles and basic trajectories of socio-cultural organization. There are no universal evolutionary stages: cultures can be (generally) heterarchical or homoarchical and have an equal level of complexity. A culture can change its basic organizational principle
without changing its current complexity level. There also exist alternatives within each of the two types. The heterarchy – homoarchy dichotomy runs throughout the whole of human history: it is observable on all levels of social complexity in all historical periods and culture areas, including the globalized world of our time. Transformations in the ways social institutions and complexes thereof, that is, societal subsystems, are ranked (either homoarchically or hetrarchically), on the one hand, and changes in culture complexity overall, on the other, are two different, largely unrelated processes. The heterarchy – homoarchy dichotomy has, to a considerable degree, predetermined the non-linear and non-fixed nature of the global sociocultural process. An adequate understanding of human socio-cultural history does not appear possible unless one takes into consideration the possibility of alternative basic principles of
societal organization, their complementary and competitive co-existence, and their interrelated dynamics throughout human history. Also, considering this possibility enables discussion of the future of the present-day globalized world as not fixed but variable, where homoarchical and heterarchical principles may intersect in various ways and at different levels – national, international, and transnational.
Keywords: social institutions, principles of organization of societies, heterarchy, homoarchy, social evolution
Asylum has become a highly charged political issue across developed countries, raising a host of difficult ethical and political questions. What responsibilities do the world's richest countries have to refugees arriving at their borders? Are states justified in implementing measures to prevent the arrival of economic migrants if they also block entry for refugees? Is it legitimate to curtail the rights of asylum seekers to maximize the number of refugees receiving protection overall? This book draws upon political and ethical theory and an examination of the experiences of the United States, Germany, the United Kingdom and Australia to consider how to respond to the challenges of asylum. In addition to explaining why asylum has emerged as such a key political issue in recent years, it provides a compelling account of how states could move towards implementing morally defensible responses to refugees.
For thirty years, Alain-G. Gagnon has been one of the world’s leading experts on federalism and multinational democracies. In Minority Nations in the Age of Uncertainty, he presents an articulate and accessible introduction to the ways in which minority nations have begun to empower themselves in a global environment that is increasingly hostile to national minorities.
Comparing conditions in Quebec, Catalonia, and Scotland, Gagnon offers six interrelated essays on national minorities, processes of accommodation, and autonomy and self-determination within a modern democratic context. Based on a long career of scholarly study and public engagement, he argues that self-determination for these “nations without states” is best achieved through intercultural engagement and negotiation within the federal system, rather than through independence movements.
Already translated into twenty languages, Manjinske nacije u doba neizvjesnosti is an essential text on the theory of multinational federalism and the politics of minority nations. This translation was done in croatian by Dejan Vanjek, University of Mostar.
The concept of civic responsibility is poorly studied by modern political science and is not sufficiently used in the analysis of the Russian political situation. This article attempts to develop the concept of civic responsibility as a category in political science using political, sociological and institutional approaches. The scientific novelty lies in the deployment of the concept of civic responsibility in the institutional context of civil society and the state. The identification of the normative and value structure of civic responsibility and its congruence in the institutional environment and the assessment of the development potential of civic responsibility will allow the better understanding of Russian politics and Russian society, as well as the expansion of the possibilities for influencing the process of the formation of civic responsibility as a stable foundation of modern politics. For empirical verification of theoretical assumptions, we used the data of an all-Russian representative survey of the population aged 18 years and older conducted by the comparative political research department of the Institute of Sociology of the Federal Center of Theoretical and Applied Sociology of the Russian Academy of Sciences (with the support of the Center of Social Forecasting and Marketing) in June 2019. The size of the sampled population was 700 people (OSPI-2019).
It is increasingly common to find the two elements 'language' and 'identity' united in a single discourse, one in which they appear as an increasingly common syntagm. In the past this was commonplace in the context of minoritized groups or migration, usually within the most subordinate group, but nowadays it is also appearing in the discourse of majority groups or those in a position of superiority. This is clearly a result of the greater contact between human groups produced by technological and economic globalization, a process which is extending the traditional areas of inter-relationship not only to a continental but also to a planetary level. As a consequence, groups that previously would not have recognised and/or would have given short shrift to the claims of sub-groups within their nation state over language and identity, now find themselves obliged to take on board these discourses, since the new situation in which they find themselves can begin to seem unsettling in this regard. Thus, the ‘defence’ of language and identity has entered international debate as never before, particularly as regards the spread of English as the language of global relations, but also with respect to the new political and economic unions that cross individual state borders.
The new ‘fears over identity’ aroused through globalization, and their association with language, rest fundamentally on the dual social function of language, namely communication and identification (or identity-building). Although language clearly serves as a vehicle for communication, in other words, for inter-signification, it also provides key elements of socio-signification . For we do not only mutually suggest meaning to each other to those aspects of reality that we refer to mentally but also, and more precisely, it happens that the visible difference between the codes used by humans serves as a potential vehicle of emotions through which we become identified with a given group.
Christiaan Willem Hendrik van der Post (1856-1914) was 'n veelsydige skrywer wie se werk teruggaan op ooggetuieverslae uit die voortrekkertyd. Sy boek Piet Uijs of Lijden en Strijd der Voortrekkers in Natal stel dat geloof en regverdigheid deugde is wat nagestreef moet word, selfs al eindig dit in mislukking. Van der Post se werk vertoon 'n teokratiese grondhouding. Dit is die mens se geloofsgehoorsaamheid en edele voorbeeld in moeilike omstandighede wat tel. In intermenslike verhoudings is dit geloofsverbondenheid wat belangrik is; ras speel geen rol in Van der Post se boek nie. Anders as sy Britse tydgenote koester hy geloofsverwagting vir die swart heidense stamme van Suidelike Afrika.
This chapter analyzes the work of Mi’gMaw filmmaker Jeff Barnaby. Barnaby uses speculative tropes to articulate the relationship of First Nations individuals and communities to the colonial nation-state, insisting on the global dimension of Indigenous literary and cultural movements that override colonial territorial boundaries. Rhymes for Young Ghouls (2013) depicts its heroine’s creation of an alternate historical time line in order to overthrow the Indian Agent regime. File Under Miscellaneous (2010) explores forced assimilation and resistance through sf. Both films are concerned with transforming popular images and familiar tropes from Gothic, fantasy, horror, and science fiction, which widens the scope of storytelling and subverts the idea of a homogeneous Indigenous culture.
This chapter draws on Margaret Atwood’s vision of Canada as a Gothic space, examining how contemporary texts continue to invoke imagery of human and animal as antagonists competing for the same space. Fuchs analyzes a corpus of three “bear horror” fictions, the horror film Backcountry (2014) and two novels, The Bear (2014) by Claire Cameron and Susan J. Crockford’s near-future polar bear-themed Eaten (2015). It argues that animal predation on humans provides a powerful symbolic vehicle for bridging the human–animal divide, as it overrides the theory of human exceptionalism, offering a critical view of the entanglement of humans and nonhumans in the Anthropocene.
This article examines ongoing efforts to associate the decline of the modernist electroacoustic music tradition with the rise of digital technologies. Illustrative material is drawn from ethnographic and archival fieldwork conducted in 2011 and 2012 in the Canadian city of Montreal. The author surveys examples of institutions, careers, performances and works showing how the digital is brought into the ideological service of existing musical orders and power structures by musicians, policy-makers and other intermediaries. Drawing upon the social theories of Pierre Bourdieu and Georgina Born, as well as on contemporary media theory, the author argues that accounts of the disruptive agency of digital mediation are incomplete without a corresponding attention to the complex cultural mechanisms by which it is kept under control. What is at stake in the transformation of Montreal’s electroacoustic tradition is not a collapse so much as a further remediation of modernist social and aesthetic principles.
Contemporary diversity politics is mobilized around debates on the effects of diversity on political community and cohesion. However, social and political theory are deeply divided on the relation between that diversity, liberal–democratic citizenship, multiculturalism and social cohesion. This article argues that a focus on the concept of belonging, which is often employed but rarely examined in detail, illustrates the critical–normative divide between social and political theory. Further, it argues that each has a partial account of belonging that fails to account for the multidimensional and complex nature of diverse belonging today. Instead, it sketches a theory of ‘multicultural-belonging’, which unites the critical and normative approaches and offers key insights going forward in the analysis of diversity, citizenship and multiculturalism.
Tradicionalment s’ha considerat que una comunitat política necessita una llengua comuna com a base d’una cultura política compartida, necessària per al funcionament de les institucions democràtiques, l’exercici de la solidaritat ciutadana, el foment de la igualtat d’oportunitats i la unitat, l’estabilitat i la fortalesa de l’estat. Aquesta idea va guiar la constitució d’estats nació com França, Itàlia o Espanya i en va legitimar les polítiques d’assimilació lingüística. I també és present en la construcció d’estats federals, com els mateixos EUA.
Ara bé: en el cas de les federacions constituïdes pel pacte entre demoi amb llengües diferents aquest no hauria de ser necessàriament el model, ja que el sistema federal facilita l’acomodació de la diversitat. Però quina és la realitat? Quantes federacions tenen llengua comuna? Per què algunes en tenen i unes altres no? La manca d’una llengua comuna impedeix d’aconseguir els objectius polítics amb què se l’ha relacionat?
El meu corpus d’estudi són les federacions i prenc com a punt de partida les que recull el Fòrum de Federacions en el seu web. En primer lloc les caracteritzo segons la seva diversitat lingüística de iure (llengües oficials en el nivell federal) i de facto (llengües que es parlen a la federació i percentatge de parlants de les principals). En segon lloc defineixo el concepte de llengua comuna d’acord amb unes determinades consideracions, per establir quantes federacions actuals tenen llengua comuna. A continuació descric les funcions polítiques que la normativa associa a la possessió d’una llengua comuna i les causes per les quals un percentatge significatiu de federacions no en tenen. Finalment, analitzo els tres casos de federacions que funcionen tant de iure com de facto sense llengua comuna (Bèlgica, Canadà i Suïssa) amb l’objectiu d’explorar si aquesta mancança pot estar relacionada directament amb els seus nivells de participació democràtica, solidaritat, igualtat d’oportunitats o estabilitat política.
Contact between culturally distinct human groups in the contemporary ‘glocal’ -global and local- world is much greater than at any point in history. The challenge we face is the identification of the most convenient ways to organise the coexistence of different human language groups in order that we might promote their solidarity as members of the same culturally developed biological species. Processes of economic and political integration currently in motion are seeing increasing numbers of people seeking to become polyglots. Thus, English is establishing itself as the usual world supra-language, although it coexists with other lingua francas that are widely used in certain parts of the globe. All this communicative reorganization of the human species may very well pose new problems and aggravate existing tensions as regards language and identity. It would seem that these processes comprise at least four major conceptual dimensions which must be taken into account above all else, as they are both widespread and, left unaddressed, may lead to significant social instability. These dimensions concern linguistic recognition, communicability, sustainability and integration. While accepting the utility of having an inter-national language, the keystone of the system is clearly that it must ensure the linguistic sustainability of each group. The basic principle is likely to be functional subsidiarity, i.e., whatever can be done by the local language should not be done by another one which is more global. As in the quote from Paracelsus --“the dose alone makes the poison”-- contact between languages is not ‘poisonous’ per se, but when the correct dose is exceeded it can prove harmful to the language whose position is weaker. A multilingual and communicated humanity is possible.
This article presents the results of a study that analyses students' historical narratives of the nation in relation to historical consciousness and how their sense of self-identification with groups affects their narrative structure and orientation. This study was conducted with French
Canadian students registered in two high schools (n=58) and one university (n=18) in Ottawa, the federal capital of Canada. I found that a strong sense of identification leads young people to construct more engaging and militant stories of the collective past, with greater historical appropriation
(using the collective 'we') and a sense of continuity with past actualities. I then discuss the implications of this study for research on the narrative competence of historical consciousness and what history education might do in school to promote historical consciousness in Canada.
This paper builds on some anthropological reflections on human rights and addresses three questions that guided my participation in the Workshop Global Phenomena and Social Sciences (Jean Moulin Lyon 3 University, February 4th 2016): (1) How have laws and legal professionals dealt with increasingly intense movements and flows of people and goods? (2) Is it possible to say that these movements and flows are out of control? (3) Is it possible to legislate about what is moving and in flow? Among the conclusions, the paper stresses that classic political-juridical categories and institutions, such as people, state, nation and individual fall short of addressing contemporary questions about collective agents and agencies, whose power dynamics is network-based. Anthropology can contribute to widening present horizons, by opening up to the perception and the understanding of these collective subjects; by establishing a dialogue with other fields of knowledge; and by making possible a ethics human-rights based.
The preservation of one or several historically and culturally important languages may be a salient political issue in some polities. Although they may not be used as an active means of communication, these languages can also serve a symbolic identitary function. These ‘heritage’ languages can be seen as ‘public goods’ and that even non-speakers of these languages can have opinions regarding their importance to national identity. In the Scotland example, while Gaelic has been the focus of proactive government legislation and education initiatives, Scots is still struggling for status as a recognised language. Both languages are in some way constituent parts of Scottish identity that at times may seem in competition with one another. Using original survey data, we delve deeper into questions of language, identity and politics in Scotland. First, we describe how public opinion is divided over the importance of Gaelic and Scots to Scottish identity. Second, we use attitudes towards these languages as a dependent variable looking at Scottish identity and attachment. Finally, we use these attitudes towards Gaelic and Scots as an independent variable in models for party identification in Scotland.
In an attempt to overcome national rival- ries, many will invoke the idea of constitutional patriotism. This idea, which serves as a collec- tive cement, is conceived as a rational commit- ment and loyalty towards the democratic and universal principles of liberal constitutions. The universalism of constitutional principles serves as a shield against national particular- isms. Indeed, this was precisely the intention of Jürgen Habermas, one of the most famous advocates of constitutional patriotism. With this political idea, Habermas set out to defeat Teutonic nationalism and its antimodern and chauvinistic manifestations. If nationalist pas- sions can be subdued, it would be with the help of such a “postnational” attitude.
Any conceptual or empirical analysis of the relations between ‘nationalism’ and ‘multiculturalism’ must begin by acknowledging the ambiguity of such notions—and setting aside those of their possible meanings which would make that analysis fruitless or impracticable from the outset. Thus, in the discussion that follows, the word ‘multiculturalism’ will refer exclusively, not to the fact of cultural diversity—which is characteristic of most contemporary liberal democracies—but to a specific kind of political response to that fact, so as to avoid the confusions deriving from ‘the [widespread] tendency to slide from descriptive to normative uses’1 of that most equivocal term. Similarly, and in contrast with the assumption that a nation can be defined as an ethnically homogeneous community—an assumption seemingly embraced by some of the leading scholars in the field, who tend to equate nationhood with cultural distinctiveness,2 thereby leaving it to others to account for the historical process by which nationalist movements actually invented the distinctive ‘culture’ of their nation-to-be3—I will adopt a more consensual and, at any rate, less unduly restrictive definition of that second, equally capacious notion. For the purpose of this article, the word ‘nation’ will refer to a community of people characterised by some common cultural features, mutual recognition, ‘the anonymity of membership’4and an aspiration to collective political self-determination that distinguishes it from an ethnic group (although an ethnic group whose identity is being threatened is likely to begin to think of itself as a nation). For while ‘ethnic groups can transform themselves into national ones and national communities may define their identity in terms of common ethnic origins […], this broad area where ethnicity and nationhood overlap does not make the two phenomena identical. National unity need not refer to common descent and ethnic groups need not understand themselves as separate political communities within the wider society.’5
Hannah Arendt entwickelt ihr Verständnis von Geschichte (s. Kap. IV.13) und freiheitlicher Politik in der Hinwendung zur griechischen und römischen Antike. Sie findet in dieser Rückbesinnung dort als Antwort auf den Totalitarismus das Fundament ihres republikanischen Humanismus (s. Kap. IV.36, II.4). Gemäß ihrer Methode des Verstehens (s. Kap. IV.42) befragt sie große Traditionen nach zukunftsweisenden Momenten, um den ursprünglichen »Sinn von Politik« (WP 28) zu erfassen und einen »Begriff der Geschichte« (LG 1, 212) offenzulegen, der dem menschlichen Handeln (s. Kap. IV.3) gerecht wird und einen Horizont für narrative Erinnerung erschließt. Mit der Aufforderung zur Achtsamkeit im Umgang mit der Sprache, die sie immer wieder in ihrem Werk formuliert, entdeckt Arendt bei Herodot — der, so Cicero, mit seiner Vielzahl an Erzählungen als Begründer der Geschichtsschreibung gilt (vgl. Cicero, De legibus 1,5) — die ursprüngliche Bedeutung von Geschichte, nämlich »nachforschen, um zu sagen, wie es war — ›legein ta eonta‹« (LG 1, 212). Die den Ereignissen verpflichtete Dichtung bei Homer und die Geschichtsschreibung bei Herodot in der Form des Erzählens stellt Arendt kritisch jeglicher Annahme von Fortschritt und Notwendigkeit in der Geschichte gegenüber, die alles Menschliche auf Prozesse reduziert und somit für »Größe« (WP 102), »Würde« (VA 200) und »Tragik« (VZ 198) keinen Horizont des Gedenkens und Urteilens (s. Kap. VI.39) bietet. Die großen Dichtungen in der griechischen Antike verleihen dem menschlichen Handeln hingegen einen Glanz, der Ruhm und Unsterblichkeit gewährt, so Arendt (s. Kap. V.1).
Contemporary democratic political culture prioritizes the right over the good. The right is imagined as a non-controversial, universally acceptable and non-negotiable good. The liberal politics of the right assumes the substance ontology of the disengaged, rational, autonomous subject. The alternative ontology of the engaged, embodied, cultural and historical self, which inspires the liberal politics of identity, however, conceives recognition of identity as a substantive, complete, determinate and non-negotiable right. This paper argues that the non-substance ontology of the self can, in fact, stimulate a politics of the non-substantial good, which is incomplete, indeterminate and imperfect. Such a conception of the good can powerfully evoke the moral sense undergirding the good, albeit negatively, when it is put into circulation in the common discursive space of politics. In polities of radical diversity like India, the negative politics of the good is especially pertinent.
Despite Canada’s rich history in immigration and the strategic role that immigration plays in Canada’s future, the tension between immigration, ethnicity, and minority rights is still prominent. Some of the tension focuses on the existence of ethno-cultural organizations. Despite the rhetoric that Canada relies on immigrants to help ameliorate its labour shortages and aging population, the very ethnicity that many immigrants are associated with is often treated with suspicion.
Even though they reflect opposing tendencies, both globalization and secessionism represent important phenomena in the contemporary world and have received considerable attention in recent scholarship.1 In many respects, each phenomenon is a challenge to the long-prevalent centrality of sovereign states in the world system. From the perspective of the neoliberal advocate of a global world order, secessionism, subnationalism, state sovereignty, regional integration, and globalization are points on a political development continuum running from the past to the future. From the viewpoint of a separatist wanting self-determination for his or her nation, the normative order is reversed and globalization may be the most serious threat to a nation’s cultural uniqueness and economic independence. Generally, evaluations of the processes of globalization and integration tend to be positive, those of nationalism and secessionism are usually negative.
The purpose of this chapter is to discuss the question of allegiance in complex multinational and poly-ethnic entities, with a specific focus on the EU and Canada. Both are claimed to be multinational and poly-ethnic, with such traits also being reflected in their official doctrines. Diversity awareness is thus an explicit concern that has to figure in their policies on allegiance formation.
This chapter moves from print media data to online media data by presenting findings from a case study focusing on a “language ideological debate” about the use of English and French in the 2010 Vancouver Olympics opening ceremonies. Drawing on two online news stories and commentary as data, findings suggest that language ideological debates such as this might arise as a result of the tension between Canada’s official identity and the identity of individual Canadians. Since most Canadians are not French–English bilingual, the identity of the nation as “bilingual” does not necessarily map onto the identity of individuals. English speakers who deny the equality of French may be attempting to justify their identity as “authentic” Canadians.
Changing conceptions of liberty and equality in the United States have given rise in recent decades to a new, coercive phase of American federalism in which the federal government engages in unprecedented regulation of state and local governments and displacement of their sovereign powers. This coercive federalism reflects a shift in federal policy-making from places (i.e., state and local jurisdictions) to persons (i.e., individual citizens). In order to protect individual rights and provide benefits to persons, the federal government has increasingly pre-empted state and local powers and required state and local governments to implement federal policies and comply with federal rules. As a result, the federal government is occupying a more monopolistic position in the federal system. Acting more like a monopolist, the federal government has sought to suppress intergovernmental competition in the federal system and has fewer incentives to behave as a co-operative partner with state and local governments.
Verfassungen können eine integrierende Funktion ausüben, wenn sie die Leitideen der jeweiligen Gesellschaft repräsentieren.1 Diese symbolische Funktion von Verfassungen trifft dort auf besondere Schwierigkeiten, wo die politische Kultur aufgrund von ethnokultureller Vielfalt stark divergierende Leitideen beinhaltet. Eine Gesellschaft, auf die das in besonderem Maße zutrifft, ist die kanadische. Der kanadische Bundesstaat ist seit längerem von einer anhaltenden Tendenz zur Desintegration gekennzeichnet. Deren wichtigster Grund ist das Streben der Provinz Quebec nach verfassungsmäßiger Anerkennung ihres besonderen Charakters als Heimat von 90 Prozent der kanadischen Frankophonen und nach einem höheren Maß an Autonomie innerhalb der kanadischen Föderation. Seit den 1960er Jahren hat sich in Kanada eine lebhafte Verfassungsdebatte entwickelt, die auch 1982 mit dem Constitution Act kein Ende fand, da Quebec seine Zustimmung zur Verfassungsreform verweigerte. Diese steht bis heute aus, weil wesentliche Forderungen -die Anerkennung als société distincte und ein damit verbundener Sonderstatus in der Föderation, der sich unter anderem in einem Vetorecht bei Verfassungsänderungen ausdrücken könnte - bisher nicht erfüllt wurden. Versuche, Quebec in die kanadische Verfassungsfamilie zurückzuholen, sind bislang gescheitert: Der Meech Lake Accord (1987) überstand das Ratifizierungsverfahren in zwei Provinzen nicht, der Charlottetown Accord (1992) wurde per Referendum durch die kanadische Bevölkerung gekippt.
Die Verankerung der kulturellen und identitären Einheit und Homogenität in der nationalen Symbolik reicht in kaum einem anderen Land so tief wie in Frankreich. Ungeachtet der Tatsache, dass die Kongruenz von Nation und Staat eines der Grundprinzipien des modernen Nationalstaats ist, hat ihre Symbolik in der Französischen Republik ihre höchste Ausprägungsform erreicht. Ein Blick auf die ersten drei Artikel der Verfassung der Fünften Republik reicht als Beispiel aus: Die Französische Republik ist unteilbar, das Französische ist die Sprache der Republik und die nationale Souveränität kann nur vom Volk in seiner Gesamtheit ausgeübt werden.
“The adoption of the Charter is undoubtedly the most significant event in the evolution of Canadian political culture in the twentieth century.” (Laforest 1995: 125)
Die Souveränität des Staates ist unter Beschuss geraten.1 Um es mit den Worten eines Historikers der Staatsgewalt auszudrücken: „Der moderne Staat, der sich in vielen hundert Jahren in Europa entwickelt und durch die europäische Expansion über die Welt verbreitet hat, existiert nicht mehr. Vor allem das Kriterium von Modernität schlechthin, die einst dem Ancien Régime mit unsäglicher Mühe abgerungene Einheitlichkeit von Staatsvolk und Staatsgewalt, Staatsgebiet und Staatshoheit (Souveränität) trifft kaum mehr zu. Zuwenig Staat in vielen ehemaligen Kolonien und zuviel Staat in Europa fuhren zur Auflösung des staatlichen Machtmonopols zu Gunsten intermediärer Instanzen und substaatlicher Verbände der verschiedensten Art“(Reinhard 1999: 535). Souveränität im emphatischen Sinn des Wortes scheint sich in der einen Zone des Planeten erst gar nicht recht auszubilden und in der anderen Zone zu rasch zu verflüchtigen.
Ours is a fragmented age. Nationalities, ethnicities, genders, races, sexual orientations and ability statuses all mark lines of social conflict, frame people’s identities, and mediate their attachments to the political system. The “new social movements” seem to have replaced the familiar ideological struggles of the last century and displaced political parties and the state as the main sites of conflict. At the same time, there is a sharpened awareness of what I shall call doctrinal pluralism, the diversity of conceptions of the good, sometimes rooted in broader philosophical or ideological differences. What do fragmentation and pluralism have to do with each other, and what do they mean for politics in democratic societies? Those are the issues I explore in this paper. I have two suggestions, one purely critical, the other positive but also tentative. The critical one is this: many contemporary theorists exaggerate the extent of doctrinal pluralism and overestimate its threat to the stability of democratic government. The positive claim is that the familiar liberal devices for ensuring tolerance must be supplemented and in some areas replaced by strategies that seek to promote wider sympathies towards other people. Although doctrinal pluralism is both real and significant, it is more limited in scope than many contemporary liberals believe: few of the most important social differences involve differences of values; not all value pluralism leads to serious conflict; and some forms of social conflict can be moderated only by leaving behind the tolerance-based model of doctrinal pluralism. Or so I shall argue.
This comment examines the idea of ‘neutrality of treatment’ that is at the heart of Alan Patten’s defense of minority cultural rights in Equal Recognition. The main issue I raise is whether neutrality of treatment can do without an ‘upstream’ or foundational commitment to neutrality of justification.
For thirty years, Alain-G. Gagnon has been one of the world’s leading experts on federalism and multinational democracies. In Minority Nations in the Age of Uncertainty, he presents an articulate and accessible introduction to the ways in which minority nations have begun to empower themselves in a global environment that is increasingly hostile to national minorities.
Comparing conditions in Quebec, Catalonia, and Scotland, Gagnon offers six interrelated essays on national minorities, processes of accommodation, and autonomy and self-determination within a modern democratic context. Based on a long career of scholarly study and public engagement, he argues that self-determination for these “nations without states” is best achieved through intercultural engagement and negotiation within the federal system, rather than through independence movements.
Already translated into fifteen languages from the original French, Minority Nations in the Age of Uncertainty is an essential text on the theory of multinational federalism and the politics of minority nations.This edition also features a foreword by noted political scientist and philosopher James Tully that discusses the significance of Gagnon's work.
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