Theorizing Multicultural Governances: Making Society Safe from Difference, Safe for Difference

Abstract

In a world awash with the politics of diversity and difference, the challenge of accommodating migrants and minorities ranks high on the global agenda (Shachar 2007). In acknowledging the importance of marrying social equality with cultural diversity to achieve inclusivness, governments have begun to revisit their public policies and governance rules. Relations between minorities and majorities have shifted accordingly, with realignment varying between countries and evolving over time (Watt 2006; Kymlicka 2007d). Conventional models of intergroup governance—including assimilation, segregration, and separation—are increasingly contested by those diversity politics that rejects the normative standard of a homogenizing governance and racialized state. Governance models are proposed instead that promote the prospect of living together with differences in ways that are workable, necessary, and fair.