National Identity and Diversity Identité Nationale Et Diversité
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A PUBLICATION OF THE ASSOCIATION FOR CANADIAN STUDIES UNE PUBLICATION DE L’ASSOCIATION D’ÉTUDES CANADIENNES VOLUME 3:2 SPRING 2004 PRINTEMPS National Identity and Diversity Identité nationale et diversité With an introduction by / Introduction faite par Rainer Bauböck, Austrian Academy of Sciences, Vienna Volume 3:2 SPRING 2004 PRINTEMPS 3 Deconstructing and accommodating 51 Beyond Multiculturalism national identities By Yasmin Alibhai-Brown By Rainer Bauböck 55 Citizenship as a Communitarian Nation 5 La déconstruction et la prise en compte des Building Project in Turkey identités nationales By Feyzi Baban By Rainer Bauböck 58 Analyzing the intersections of diversity: A 7 Interview with Hélène Chalifour-Scherrer: strategy towards equality Minister of Canadian Heritage By Marie Moliner 9 Interview with David Pratt: 61 Conversing About Diversity Minister of National Defence Dr.Paul Spoonley 11 National Identity and the “Canadian Way”: 65 Managing Democratization and Nation-Building Values, Connections and Culture in South-eastern Europe (the Western Balkans) By Erin Tolley By Dejan Guzina 16 Mon pays ce n’est pas un pays, c’est une idée… 69 Diversity, Citizenship & National Par Chantal Bernier Identity in Denmark By Bashy Quraishy 19 Notional Nations: The Myth of Canada as a Multinational Federation 73 Celebrating the Nation: By Jack Jedwab The German Peace Jubilee of 1871 By Barbara Lorenzkowski 23 The Place of Immigrants: Politics of Difference in Territorial and Social Space 77 Diversity, immigration, and national By Peter S. Li identity in Switzerland By Joanna Pfaff-Czarnecka 29 Between Imagination and Reality: Tales of Skilled Immigrants from China 81 Mariachi and Mexican National Identity By Sin Yih Teo By Mary-Lee Mulholland 32 The Conundrum of Religious Diversity 85 Citizenship without Identity in Canada’s Multicultural Society By Christian Joppke By Paul W. R. Bowlby 88 Making multiculturalism 36 Dialogue and Differends: On the Limits and nationhood compatible of Liberal Multiculturalism By Varun Uberoi By Richard Day 91 Contemporary Inter-Ethnic Relations and 39 Strengthening Canada’s Social Weave: the Role of History: The Past in the Present Diversity, Identity and Belonging By Nuno Dias By Joanna Anneke Rummens 94 Branding Canada: Can We Brand a Country? 43 The Many Dimensions of Belgian Diversity By John Nadeau By Marco Martiniello 47 National Identity in Australia: Cosmopolitan Contradictions Down Under By Jock Collins Canadian Diversity is published by This edition of “Canadian Diversity” is a collaboration of the Metropolis Project Diversité canadienne est publié par Ce numéro de « Thèmes canadiens » est commandité par le projet Metropolis PRESIDENT / PRÉSIDENT Hector Mackenzie INCOMING PRESIDENT / PRÉSIDENTE DÉSIGNÉE Marie-Hélène Giroux, Université de Montréal FRENCH LANGUAGE SECRETARY / SECRÉTAIRE DE LANGUE FRANÇAISE Nicole Neatby, St-Mary’s University The ACS would also like to highlight the generous support of Omni Television (Rogers Communications) and diversitynow.ca. ENGLISH LANGUAGE SECRETARY / SECRÉTAIRE DE LANGUE ANGLAISE Gerald Gall, University of Alberta Un appui financier a été fourni par Omni Television (Rogers Communications) et diversitynow.ca ATLANTIC PROVINCE REPRESENTATIVE / REPRÉSENTANTE DE L’ATLANTIQUE Penny Bryden, Mount Allison University QUEBEC REPRESENTATIVE / REPRÉSENTANT DU QUÉBEC Christopher Manfredi, McGill University Canadian Diversity is a quarterly publication of the Association for Canadian Studies ONTARIO REPRESENTATIVE / REPRÉSENTANT DE L’ONTARIO Chad Gaffield, University of Ottawa (ACS). It is distributed free of charge to individual and institutional members of the PRAIRIE PROVINCES AND NORTHWEST TERRITORIES REPRESENTATIVE / Association. Canadian Diversity is a bilingual publication. All material prepared by REPRÉSENTANT DES PRAIRIES ET DES TERRITOIRES DU NORD-OUEST Raymond Blake, Saskatchewan Institute for Public Policy the ACS is published in both French and English. All other articles are published in BRITISH COLUMBIA AND YUKON REPRESENTATIVE / the language in which they are written. Opinions expressed in articles are those of the REPRÉSENTANTE DE LA COLOMBIE-BRITANIQUE ET DU YUKON Peter Seixas, University of British Columbia authors and do not necessarily reflect the opinion of the ACS. The Association for STUDENTS REPRESENTATIVE / REPRÉSENTANTE DES ÉTUDIANTS Canadian Studies is a voluntary non-profit organization. It seeks to expand and dis- Becky Mosher seminate knowledge about Canada through teaching, research and publications. The EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OF THE ACS / DIRECTEUR GÉNÉRAL DE L’AEC Jack Jedwab ACS is a scholarly society and a member of the Humanities and Social Science DIRECTOR OF SPECIAL EVENTS / DIRECTEUR D’ÉVÉNEMENTS SPÉCIAUX Federation of Canada. The ACS is also a founding member of the International James Ondrick Council for Canadian Studies. Diversité canadienne est une publication trimestrielle de l’Association d’études cana- diennes (AEC). It est distribué gratuitement aux membres de l’Association. Diversité canadienne est une publication bilingue. Tous les textes émanant de l’Association sont publiés en français et en anglais. Tous les autres textes sont publiés dans leur langue d’origine. Les collaborateurs et collaboratrices de Diversité canadienne sont entièrement responsables des idées et opinions exprimées dans leurs articles. L’Association d’études canadiennes est un organisme pan-canadien à but non lucratif dont l’objectif est de promouvoir l’enseignement, la recherche et les publications sur le Canada. L’AEC est une société savante, membre de la Fédération canadienne des sciences humaines et sociales. Elle est également membre fondateur du Conseil international d’études canadiennes. EDITOR / RÉDACTEUR EN CHEF Jack Jedwab MANAGING EDITOR / DIRECTRICE DE LA RÉDACTION Allison Anderson LETTERS/LETTRES EDITORIAL ASSISTANT / ASSISTANTE ÉDITORIALE Comments on this edition of Canadian Diversity? Natalie Ouimet We want to hear from you. COVER ART / ILLUSTRATION DE LA COUVERTURE Alfredo Garcia Write to Canadian Diversity – Letters ACS, 1822A rue Sherbrooke Ouest, Montréal (Québec) H3H 1E4. Or e-mail us at <[email protected]> DESIGN / GRAPHISME Bang ! Marketing (514) 849-2264 • 1-888-942-BANG Your letters may be edited for length and clarity. [email protected] Des commentaires sur ce numéro ? ADVERTISING / PUBLICITÉ Écrivez-nous à Diversité canadienne [email protected] Lettres AEC, 1822A rue Sherbrooke Ouest, Montréal (Québec) H3H 1E4. CITC/ACS STREET ADDRESS / ADRESSE CIVIQUE CITC/AEC 1822A rue Sherbrooke Ouest, Montréal (Québec) H3H 1E4 Ou par courriel au <[email protected]> Vos lettres peuvent être E-mail/Courriel: [email protected] modifiées pour des raisons éditoriales. Deconstructing and accommodating national identities ational identity is a difficult object of analysis for of launching a nation-building project and about the the social sciences. Since the 1980s a number of building materials available to them (homeland territories, Nprominent theorists have attempted to deconstruct ethnic identities, historical narratives). The third question this object. They have argued that we need to understand is about political action. We need to study strategies used nations as “imagined communities” (Anderson 1983) and by such elites in order to promote the identification of that “it is nationalism which engenders nations, and not potential constituents with a national project and the the other way round.” (Gellner 1983) More recently, some result of their efforts. The final question concerns the have criticized “methodological nationalism” in the social entrenchment of national identities in public institutions. sciences. This shows in the tendency to take nationally These include public education systems and official state bounded societies “as the naturally given entities to study” symbols, but also less visible ways in which governments (Glick-Schiller and Wimmer 2003), or in hidden assump- structure social life so that national identities are taken for tions that ethnic and national categories correspond to granted as an ever-present background even when they are “internally homogeneous and externally bounded groups not mobilized. Most importantly, the boundaries of nearly as basic constituents of social life, chief protagonists of all modern states – their territorial borders and distinctions social conflicts, and fundamental units of social analysis.” between citizens and aliens – have historically been (Brubaker 2002) Trapped in the pitfalls of essentialism, associated with particular nation-building projects and (as reification and ‘groupism’, even critical social science may Richard Day points out) the international state system unintentionally reinforce nationalist ideology. Instead of itself perpetuates national identities by dividing humanity studying national identity as a stable property of individuals into relatively stable compartments. or groups, we should focus on ‘nationness’ as a contingent It is important to be aware that nation-building projects event, something that happens in moments of political can fail in many different ways. First, the general causes mobilization, but that may also subside thereafter. and conditions listed above create obstacles for forging These are important warning signs and they ought to be national identities among territorially dispersed groups taken seriously by anybody who wants to analyze rather and aboriginal peoples, or among linguistically heteroge- than