‘Responding to Complex Diversity in Europe and Canada: Balance and Perspectives’

University of Augsburg, 23–25 October 2014

The final conference of the RECODE network will present and discuss new contributions to studying socio-cultural diversity and the political challenges it entails. It will offer a critical balance of the scientific activities realized under the umbrella of the RECODE network over the past four years. The conference will not only give an overview of the work done in the four RECODE thematic sections, but also address the interconnections in this work in order to substantiate the analytic potential complex diversity has for understanding ongoing transformations on both sides of the North Atlantic area. The key question the workshop will address is the transition from the ‘simple’ diversity of high modernity to the ‘complex’ diversity of present times.

The final RECODE event will have two main parts. The first, opening part of the event (23 October 2014) will integrate two keynote lectures and a panel debate focusing on the topic ‘Complex diversity and its politics: towards a new research agenda’. The main purpose of this public event is to present the views of two scholars with a pioneering record in the debate on ethnic relations and multiculturalism, and to contrast these views with approaches to studying diversity adopted in the context of RECODE.
 

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Poster RECODE Conference Panel and Flyer RECODE Conference Panel

Gérard Bouchard (sociology, history / Université du Québec à Chicoutimi) will address the ‘majority moment’ in diversity politics, arguing that the focus of research on ethnic diversity should be substantially enlarged and include majority cultures as a topic of analysis in and of itself. Tariq Modood (politics, sociology / University of Bristol) will revisit equality and group identity, making a plea for transcending the dichotomy between ‘identities constructed from the inside’ and ‘identities constructed from the outside’ within a normative framework that concentrates on groups fighting outsider perceptions by boosting insider identifications.

Gérard Bouchard and Tariq Modood were not directly involved with the activities of the RECODE program thus far. The issues raised in their lectures will be discussed by a panel composed of scholars who have been associated in different ways with the RECODE project over the past five years. Bouchard and Modood will have the opportunity to respond to the panelists before the floor is opened to the general public.

The second part of the event (24‒25 October 2014) will principally be devoted to the workshop ‘From simple to complex diversity: balance and perspectives’. The workshop’s purpose is to offer a first comprehensive and critical balance of the scientific activities realized under the umbrella of the RECODE network over the past four years. Participation in the workshop is limited to RECODE Steering Committee members and invited guests. The workshop should not only give an overview of the outcomes of the RECODE thematic sections, but also address the dynamics of changes and possible interconnections between them. The key question that the workshop will address is the transition from the ‘simple’ diversity of high modernity to the ‘complex’ diversity of present times.

The workshop is divided into four sessions, each of these focusing respectively on one of the program’s thematic core sections, i.e. religion, language, welfare, and de-territorialization. The format of the sessions is based on confronting a contribution of a RECODE-associate with the contribution of a non-RECODE speaker. The papers presented in the workshop can either apply a general focus on the work done by a section or address a particular topic, which is considered to be of special relevance for tackling the section’s scientific objectives. The papers are expected to have a complementary character and to offer a critical approach to the work done by the RECODE sections.

Both the opening event and the workshop shall contribute to an assessment of how successful RECODE has been in coming to grips with the phenomenon of complex diversity, in analyzing this phenomenon in productive and innovative ways, and in combining European and Canadian approaches in the endeavor to grasp a new constellation, in which a variety of social, political and cultural cleavages overlap and compete for political legitimacy at national, supranational and transnational levels.

Workshop brought to you with the support of: