How to see communities as static entities
In a sign of enhanced need for understanding the ideology of multiculturalism, oD has brought together a collection of critical write-ups on the subject. From David Hayes:
''This question lies behind a new debate on openDemocracy. It is led by one of Britain’s foremost theorists of multiculturalism, Tariq Modood. In his new book, Multiculturalism: A Civic Idea and openDemocracy article Multiculturalism, citizenship and national identity, Modood develops the understanding of multiculturalism to accommodate two concerns that have come to the forefront in recent years: its particular association with British Muslim experience, and its connection with national identity.
''Modood’s careful, subtle argument for a “dynamic, internally differentiated multiculturalism within the context of democratic citizenship” has provoked a wide range of responses. Nick Johnson of the Commission for Racial Equality is broadly in agreement with Tariq’s analysis; Sunny Hundal of PickledPolitics questions its reinforcement of the tendency to see communities as static entities; Nick Pearce of ippr and Paul Kelly of the LSE question its implications for liberalism; Nira Wickramasinghe, Abdul-Rehman Malik and Yahya Birt refreshingly extended the argument’s terms of reference to Sri Lanka, Canada and global cosmopolitanism respectively.''
