Integrating Diversity
University of Tizi-Ouzou, Algeria (Arabic, Kabyle, French), 2007
Credit: Vermondo / CC BY SA
Summary
Samuel Huntington’s explanation of post-Cold War tensions as a clash of civilizations had the effect of dismissing other causes and helped confine humanity within images of exclusion, fear and violence. Identity is varied and subjective; it is neither natural nor stable but a complex construction of particular compounds. Interdependence, mobility, the circulation of ideas and values, direct access to alternative models for every individual—all these now infinitely broaden the range of identities on offer.
The conventional view of the Cold War is one of societies contained within a rigid bipolar military and ideological system, with an exclusive state allegiance. The end of bipolarity has made pre-existing identity issues more visible, as demonstrated, for example, by the Partition between India and Pakistan. The diversity of societies within these countries is increasingly described in terms of cultures, civilizations, ethnic groups and religions, while the Other is seen to be confined within an exclusive identity that accounts for their distinctive behavior
When the illusion of an overlap between national, political, and cultural identities begins to fade, identity then serves as a basis for political or territorial campaigns. While the collapse of the communist bloc left an analytical void as far as the understanding of global conflicts were concerned, Samuel Huntington’s theory of the “ clash of civilizations ” (1993) appeared to offer an answer based on the idea of an opposition between eight great civilizations, seen as so many monolithic blocs which were ultimately defined by religion. Between these civilizations, the lines of future divisions and conflicts were seen to be marked out. The explanation of global post-Cold War tensions along cultural lines (the West and others) – a theory largely contradicted by the facts – dismisses other causes and their particular combinations in time and space.
Such culturalist geopolitics as an ideology, and as a discourse espoused by academe, schools, the media, and the political class, met with resounding success, but was also fraught with danger. Over the past generation, this view has been massively disseminated and deeply internalized as an obvious truth, helping to confine humanity within positions of exclusion, fear and violence (in which destruction of the Other and genocide are the most radical forms of expression).
The complex construction of identities
Greater interdependence and mobility, the circulation of ideas and values, and direct access to alternative models for every individual are now infinitely widening the possible identities on offer. The uniformity of middle-class life styles resulting from mass consumption is producing tensions between openness and withdrawal, integration and fragmentation. The Other has suddenly become more visible and closer at hand, and diversity more of an everyday experience, overturning collective and individual points of refernce, and opening up new questions about community, otherness, and identity.
The notion of identity is ambiguous, diverse, and subjective, neither natural nor stable; it is a complex construction process, malleable and ambivalent in its definition of and by the self in relation to others and by others. This cocktail of identities straddles linguistic affiliations (more than 6,000 across the world and an increasing number of polyglots), religions (exceptions apart, each individual has only one religion but many people have none, and the numerous forms of syncretism cannot be made to fit in with the main religious groupings), nations, traditions, and social attachments, not to mention a variety of other markers, including more personal ones such as age, gender or certain commitments.
Hybridization and mixing
However, the loss of symbolic power by nation-states, combined with frustrations and fears in the face of worsening social inequalities, cause or encourage sometimes aggressive retraction into refuge Rewritten histories, murderous ideologies of purity, identity labels, millenarian angst, and an obsession with security are all increasingly prevalent, fostered by identity and religious entrepreneurs who sustain and feed on them.
Diversity is a concept with different meanings according to the contexts and actors, from social projects to the masking of inequalities. The history of the Americas from the sixteenth century onward is the result of continuous intermixing which has led to ever greater diversity. “E Pluribus Unum” [Out of many, one] was the founding motto of the United States – a nation and a state built on immigration, in which ethnic, social, and geographical diversity combine in a particular way to produce a melting pot marked by profound inequalities.
Blacks and Hispanics in the United States, 2010
Comment: Although the two principal minorities in the United States are scattered over the whole of the country, their proportion of the population in the counties is very variable. The explanation for these differences is partly historical: the “Great Migration,” or the exodus of black people from the former slave states of the south toward the northeast and midwest over the course of the 19th century; but it is also due to the effects of proximity (Hispanics, for example, are more numerous along the Mexican border). However, the third map shows that their numbers increased in the east and center in the first ten years of the 21st century.
Main origins of migrants to the United States, 1820-2010
Comment: This graph shows how thirteen of the original nationalities making up the melting pot of United States permanent residents have evolved over two centuries. Several waves of migration are evident: first it was European, from the mid-19th to the early-20th century (Germans, Irish, English, Italians and Russians), then an opening-up to the rest of the world in the late 20th century (Asia and Latin America – with the greatest numbers – and Africa –with the fewest).
This slogan recurs in the European motto (“Unity in diversity”) and in most of those in the Southeast Asian states, which gather within their colonial borders peoples of very different ethno-religious and linguistic origin. In Brazil, where nation-building was based on a population mix that included Indians, African slaves, and European settlers, non-white peoples have now become the majority, with over 40% being of mixed race. However, the increased prestige of hybridization does not protect people from suffering great inequality and the brutality of social exclusion.
Distribution of principal ethnic origins in Brazil, 2010
Comment: The series of four maps created from data provided by the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE), which takes a census of people according to their skin color (self-declared out of six possibilities), shows not only the diversity of the Brazilian population but also the importance of mixed origins. People of mixed race are by far the most numerous across the country, but particularly in the northeast and in the Amazon, in contrast to the greater numbers of white people in the south; this is the richest region and the traditional place of arrival for European immigrants. Black people are present in the northeast and in all parts of the South East which developed because of slavery, while Indians are mainly found in the Amazon.
European and Asian migrants to Brazil, 1819-1939
The populations of European states are the result of age-old mixing, which recurring bouts of nationalism, xenophobia and racism have tried and still try to deny. European integration has altered the scale of diversity in the space of sixty years (23 official languages, almost all the religions, and a great number of national, regional, and local traditions); in France, a country of immigration (neighbors, colonies, and then the entire world), almost a quarter of the French population have an immigrant ancestor. The European colonization of Africa and Asia created conflicts and lasting ties, evidenced by languages, the direction of migrations and social structures, as in South Africa. The French model of citizenship confines linguistic and religious affiliation to the private arena, while Anglo-Saxon multiculturalism allows differences to coexist in a public space founded on the principle of group representation and tolerance – although the latter is experiencing limits in the present context of identity withdrawals. Both these models are showing signs of wear, no longer able to guarantee equality of opportunity and the possibility of integration, and are therefore now under debate. The adoption by many actors of an interpretative framework in which mobility, interdependence, and diversity are dangers, conceals the social disintegration occurring worldwide, as well as aggravating frustrations and fears and leading to widespread violence.
- state > State
- The state is a political system that is centralized (unlike the feudal system), differentiated (from civil society, public/private space), institutionalized (institutions are depersonalized), territorialized (a territory whose borders mark the absolute limit of its jurisdiction), that claims sovereignty (holding ultimate power) and that bears responsibility for ensuring its population’s security. In public international law, the state is defined as a population living on a territory defined by borders subject to a political authority (the national territorial state).
- bipolarity > Bipolarity
- These terms refer to the division of power in the international system. According to the number of dominating powers (one, two, or several), the configuration is described as unipolar, bipolar, or multipolar, respectively. In contrast to these notions, discussed particularly among realist currents in international relations, the idea of apolarity has emerged, which stresses the irrelevance of seeing global space in terms of power centers, because of the way these have been transformed.
- cultures > Culture
- Culture is what distinguishes human existence from the natural state, that is to say it denotes the processes through which humans use and develop their intellectual capacities. According to Clifford Geertz (1973), culture is a system of significations commonly shared by the members of a social community, who use them in their interactions. Cultures are therefore not immutable but change according to social practices, incorporating processes of both inclusion and exclusion. Culturalism is a concept which considers that supposed collective beliefs and membership of a particular culture predetermine social behavior.
- civilizations > Civilization
- The notion of civilization appeared in the eighteenth century. It must be used with caution as it is often exploited and generally used to discriminate by being contrasted with non-civilization. In the way it is currently used today, it denotes a very large-scale collective identity, a system of social, economic and political organization shared by a substantial number of societies and characterized by specific achievements designed to control living conditions (techniques for governing nature, writing, arts and sciences, organization of society, and so on).
- ethnic > Ethnicity
- Ethnicity is a descriptive category that appeared at the end of the 19th century, constructed by anthropologists and disseminated by colonial administrations. Unlike “race” it does not reference biological criteria but designates a group of individuals with the same origin, the same cultural tradition, whose unity is based on language, history, territory, beliefs and the awareness of belonging to an ethnic group. Ethnicity, which some have claimed to be a natural phenomenon, is in fact a social construct, externally imposed or claimed, at once arbitrary and evolving. Proposed as an exclusive identity, it becomes all the more powerful as an instrument of political mobilization when the state is in difficulty. Ethnocentrism consists in understanding the world exclusively through the lens of one’s own culture and seeking to impose this interpretation.
- religions > Religious
- There is no universal understanding of the notion of religion, nor is there any clear distinction between a religion and a sect. Generally speaking, a religion is a system of beliefs that makes a distinction between the sacred and the profane, manifested in a set of ritual actions that give reality to this distinction. Individuals may be described as religious if they practice or claim to belong to a religion, or if they have made religion their profession and devoted their lives to it.
- identity > Identity
- The concept of identity is ambiguous, multifaceted, subjective, and frequently exploited and manipulated. No identity is foreordained or natural – so it is better to talk of identity construction, or of the processes of constructing self-representations developed by an individual or group. These constructions are neither stable nor permanent, defining the individual or group from multiple perspectives: on its own terms, in relation or opposition to others, and by others. The way individuals and groups use identity varies according to their interests and the constraints inherent in their specific situation: identity, therefore, is a construct based on interaction. This combination of affiliations, allegiances and internal and external recognition is a complex process, involving various degrees of awareness and contradiction, constantly being amalgamated and reconfigured.
- bloc > Bloc
- A common notion to describe the set of states gathered around one or other of the two poles (the United States and the USSR) during the Cold War. It has since been used to talk of the regional groups now known as “commercial blocs.” This term puts the emphasis on closure and confrontation without expressing the internal diversity or dynamism of these states.
- clash of civilizations > Clash of civilizations
- The expression “clash of civilizations” has passed into common vocabulary. It was popularized by an article published in 1993 by Samuel Huntington, who was seeking to identify new global “fault lines” following the collapse of the Soviet bloc. Huntington’s thesis, strongly contested on account of the vague nature of the “civilization blocs” he identified, involved the emergence of regional blocs divided around identity issues and a purely culturalist vision.
- geopolitics > Geopolitics
- Study of power struggles for territory, generally involving states in competition for space, with the direct or indirect use of organized violence as its mode of operation. Translation of the German term Geopolitik (1897), with definitions and uses that have varied over time. Friedrich Ratzel and Rudolf Kjellén examined the relationships between state politics and geographic data; Karl Haushofer wrote about the relationships between land, blood and race and defined the Lebensraum (living space) that formed the basis of Nazi propaganda (in consequence of which the term subsequently fell into disuse); and Halford John Mackinder spoke of the “geographic” foundations of military power, contrasting the continental heartland with the maritime periphery. More recently, Yves Lacoste emphasized the importance of representations, the idea of the nation being for him the most powerful form of geopolitical representation. Geostrategy is geopolitics directed toward action (military or economic).
- genocide > Genocide
- Crime codified by the international Genocide Convention of December 9, 1948. Its definition specifies acts committed “with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such: a) Killing members of the group; b) Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group; c) Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part; d) Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group; e) Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.”
- individual > Individual
- The individual, as a basic social actor, is playing an increasingly important role in the processes of globalization for multiple reasons, including the ever-faster circulation of ideas, values and information; the ability to build networks for sharing and solidarity without physical proximity; the networking of international expertise; and human rights movements and demands for democracy.
- otherness > Alterity
- Alterity is the state of being “other,” outside of what is represented by an individual’s characteristics or those of a given socio-political or cultural environment. It is used here mainly in a cultural and political sense.
- gender > Gender
- Historic, social, cultural and psychological construction of a binary categorization between sexes (men/women) and between the values and representations associated with them (masculine/feminine). Arising from the feminist works of the 1970s, the concept of gender spread through the United States during the 1980s and then in Europe from the 1990s before being taken up in the literature on sexual minorities. The gender concept views relations between the sexes as a power relationship (historically constructed around the material and symbolic subordination of women compared to men) that cannot be isolated from other power relationships such as social class, race, age or disability.
- inequalities > Inequality
- Unequal distribution of goods, material and/or non-material, regarded as necessary or desirable. Beyond income inequality (national, international and global), cumulative inequalities can also be measured with respect to accessing public services (healthcare, education, employment, housing, justice, effective security, etc.) and accessing property and natural resources more generally, and also relative to political expression or the capacity to respond to ecological risks. When these inequalities are based on criteria prohibited by law, they constitute discrimination.
- security > Security
- A set of representations and strategies developed by an individual or collectivity to reduce the threats to which they feel exposed. At the international level, security may consist of: 1) an unstable, precarious balance between the security of different nations, underpinned by their degree of power; 2) the concerted organization of this balance (international security); 3) the establishment of a security regime imposed on all states that have signed up to it (collective security). Above and beyond any tangible threat, the language of security tends to represent objects or groups of people as dangers for the security of states, notably in order to justify particular security policies (state of emergency, military action, closing of borders, etc.).
- identity > Identity
- The concept of identity is ambiguous, multifaceted, subjective, and frequently exploited and manipulated. No identity is foreordained or natural – so it is better to talk of identity construction, or of the processes of constructing self-representations developed by an individual or group. These constructions are neither stable nor permanent, defining the individual or group from multiple perspectives: on its own terms, in relation or opposition to others, and by others. The way individuals and groups use identity varies according to their interests and the constraints inherent in their specific situation: identity, therefore, is a construct based on interaction. This combination of affiliations, allegiances and internal and external recognition is a complex process, involving various degrees of awareness and contradiction, constantly being amalgamated and reconfigured.
- entrepreneurs > Political entrepreneur
- An entrepreneur, as defined by Max Weber, manages an organized group that has an administrative management and pursues a specific goal. An identity or religious entrepreneur, then, is an actor who mobilizes symbols of identity or religion for the benefit of their political, social or economic capital.
- nation > Nation
- Political community based on an awareness of shared characteristics and/or a will to live together. It is common practice to contrast political and cultural concepts of the nation – which in practice are mutually influential and tend to converge. In the political concept, the nation is invented and produced by a state: the territory precedes the nation and defines its contours (this is known as the French concept, based on the republican melting pot and jus soli, right of the soil). In the cultural understanding of nation, a shared common culture produces the nation. The national project consists in bringing this population together on a single territory (the cultural or romantic or German concept of the nation, based on jus sanguinis, right of blood). The latter concept intrinsically produces conflicts and can lead to ethnic cleansing or genocide (Nazi Germany, Greater Serbia, etc.).
- melting pot > Melting pot
- A metaphor and founding myth in the United States, a country built on immigration, the “melting pot” expresses the principle that immigrants, whatever their various origins, come together and are assimilated around common values. The process requires them to leave behind their former allegiances and be “born again.” In reality, this myth never really held true – especially for the black people who were the country’s first minority, brought by the slave trade in a violent, forced immigration. The term was denounced, therefore, by the civil rights movement, from the 1960s onward. Since then, the diversification of migratory flows and the Hispanicization of the United States have yielded other metaphors, such as salad bowl or mosaic, which emphasize the coexistence of separate communities rather than their fusion.
- borders > Border
- The line that marks the limit of state sovereignty, as distinct from the hazy boundary zones or limits of empires. In no way natural, these long-term historic constructs, which can be more or less endogenous and more or less subject to dispute and violence, are being profoundly altered by contemporary globalization processes. Regional integration processes are transforming and diminishing them – even erasing them, and pushing them back; transnational actors are crossing them or bypassing them; at the same time, they are being closed to migration, while new borders (social, cultural) are being constructed.
- population mix > Hybridization
- The phenomenon of hybridity or mixture, biological and/or cultural, may be happening at a faster rate in the contemporary world but is evident throughout the history of humanity. Only an obsession with the model of the territorial nation-state, closed to all circulation and homogeneous in terms of identity and culture (even of ethnicity or race in some cases) obscures a characteristic present in virtually all societies of the world. Some periods of increased population mobility have been drivers of hybridization (“discovery” of the New World, colonization in the 19th century and increased population movements since the late 20th century). Some political regimes have attempted to deny and resist it or are doing so now (obstacles to “mixed” marriages, marginalization, ghettoization, population displacements, ethnic cleansing, exterminations, genocide).
- hybridization > Hybridization
- The act of mixing two varieties of a single species, which can, by extension, be applied to the formation of any political, religious, institutional, economic, cultural (etc.) system synthesizing different influences.
- racism > Racism
- Racism is based on prejudices that assert the existence of human races and establishes a hierarchy among them. It produces, encourages or tolerates behaviors of hate, contempt or rejection in relation to people seen as belonging to different races regarded as inferior, and can be used to justify the implementation of discriminatory policies (colonial slave trade, anti-Semitism, apartheid, etc.). Contemporary forms of racism promote the idea that irreconcilable differences of culture, religion and/or civilization justify the separation of nations or ethnic and/or religious communities, either into different countries or within a country. They also object to diversity, cultural hybridity, open borders and some types of migration.
- colonies > Colonization
- A historical process by which Europe established deep links with the rest of the world. From the late fifteenth century (the Age of Discovery), a vast movement began for economic, political, and cultural domination of the world, first by Spain and Portugal and then by England, France, and Holland, which from the late sixteenth century started to compete for possession of colonial wealth. A second wave of colonization took place in the nineteenth century, when all the countries of South America that had been under the first two empires were already independent. The Industrial Revolution encouraged the search for new markets, and France and England jockeyed for a share of part of Asia and Africa. The colonized territories had different statuses (dominions, protectorates, or direct rule).
- citizenship > Citizen
- The origin of citizenship goes back to Antiquity, and it denotes the enjoyment of civic and political rights within democratic regimes (right to vote, right of eligibility, exercise of public freedoms). By granting rights and obligations to citizens, popular sovereignty provides the foundation for the state’s legitimacy. Citizenship is an element of social cohesion, with citizens forming a political community (theory of the social contract) to which they owe primary allegiance. Depending on the period and country, it has been refused to some sections of the population: women, slaves, the poor, the illiterate, soldiers, foreigners, or minors. The Maastricht Treaty (1992) created a European citizenship within the European Union.
- multiculturalism > Multiculturalism
- Multiculturalism, in its standard socio-political meaning, refers to a principle of managing linguistic, cultural, religious or ethnic diversity within a single political entity. It allows the groups concerned to interact on the basis of a platform of shared principles, without having to abandon their characteristic identities and while continuing therefore to function as distinct communities. Canadian multiculturalism was originally intended to integrate the Quebec identity within the nation and bring an end to calls for independence. Multiculturalism is often contrasted with the French concept of universalism, which refuses to treat citizens in a differentiated way. Both models are controversial and their political representation remains a source of division.
- public space > Public sphere
- Concept defined by the philosopher Jürgen Habermas (1978), who saw politics as a subject of debate, of publicity and therefore subject to the influence of national public opinion, which in turn places substantial limits on absolutism. Transposed to international level, we can see the development of this kind of sphere in the fact that actors other than nation-states engage with questions that were formerly the preserve of national sovereignty.