Introduction

Abstract

With the ethnic, cultural and religious diversity that is a feature of European societies today, pluralism is experienced in newly challenging ways. In many places, an urban cosmopolitan mix sits side by side with group-based expressions of faith and culture. While some observers show particular interest in new formations of ‘difference’, others consider the coincidence between ‘old’ and ‘new’ and the resulting challenges for the political accommodation of national and ethnic minorities. Irrespective of the precise language that is used to characterize constellations of cultural diversity in Europe, it seems clear that debates about what can and cannot be accepted are more fluid than ever. While identities, lifestyles and practices that were previously stigmatized are publicly embraced, the boundaries of tolerance are drawn more narrowly for others, in particular for populations that allegedly do not live up to liberal-democratic standards. Such changes may be a reflection of sociological trends and how these are perceived and politically acknowledged. They may be the result of changing perspectives on race, of the reconsideration of ethno-religious difference within the liberal state and of new anxieties in particular about Europe’s Muslim populations. It is difficult to identify what is driving the re-evaluation of ‘difference’, yet it seems clear that diverse ‘modalities’ of acceptance or non-acceptance, sociological formations of difference and their treatment in political discourse have to be brought into focus in order to catch up with European debates about cultural pluralism.