Us, Them, and Others: Pluralism and National Identity in Diverse Societies

by Elke Winter

Overview

How do countries come to view themselves as being ‘multicultural’? Us, Them, and Others presents a dynamic new model for understanding pluralism based on the triangular relationship between three groups — the national majority, historically recognized minorities, and diverse immigrant bodies. Elke Winter's research illustrates how compromise between unequal groups is rendered meaningful through confrontation with real or imagined outsiders.

Us, Them, and Others sheds new light on the astonishing resilience of Canadian multiculturalism in the late 1990s, when multicultural policies in other countries had already come under heavy attack. Winter draws on analyses of English-language newspaper discourses and a sociological framework to connect discourses of pan-Canadian multicultural identity to representations of Quebecois nationalism, immigrant groups, First Nations, and the United States. Taking inspiration from the Canadian experience, Us, Them, and Others is an enticing examination of national identity and pluralist group formation in diverse societies.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781442661189
Publisher:	University of Toronto Press
Publication date:	10/01/2011
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	288
File size:	2 MB

About the Author

Elke Winter is an associate professor of Sociology at the University of Ottawa. An alumna of the German National Merit Foundation, she also won the University of Ottawa’s 2010 Young Researcher of the Year Award.

Table of Contents

Part I Introduction

1. How Do ‘We’ Become Pluralist?
2. A Canadian Paradox

Part II Theoretical Considerations

1. Theoretical Puzzles
2. Social Relations and Processes of Ethnicization
3. Nationalist Exclusion and Its Remedies

Part III Empirical Analysis

1. How Do ‘We’ Become Multicultural?
2. Neither ‘America’ nor ‘Quebec’
3. To Be or Not to Be Like Quebec
4. Who Constitutes Multiculturalism? Divergent Perspectives

PartIV: Conclusions

1. The Social Constitution of a Pluralist ‘We’
2. Comparative Perspectives

Bibliography

Notes

Index