In the modern era, the grand forces of modernism, liberalism and nationalism have opposed and minimized societal diversity in Western states. The Civil Rights Movement in the USA and the flow of ...millions of unassimilable immigrants, mostly Muslims, to Europe opened Western societies to cultural diversity. But liberal multiculturalism in the West consists mainly of endorsement of subcultures, non‐discrimination and inclusion. It falls short of instituting consociational components like cultural autonomy and power‐sharing. Fear and unease in the West increasingly give priority to majority over minority rights. While all Western democracies object to societal diversity, they differ in the way they handle it: liberal democracies deny it, consociational democracies institutionalize it and ethnic democracies partially allow and partially subordinate it. These three different strategies are evident in the way representative cases of Western democracies, namely the USA, Switzerland and Estonia, respectively, cope with societal diversity.
Living together in culturally plural societies poses numerous challenges for members of ethnocultural groups and for the larger society. An important goal of these societies is to achieve positive ...intercultural relations among all their peoples. Successful management of these relations depends on many factors including a research‐based understanding of the historical, political, economic, religious and psychological features of the groups that are in contact. The core question is ‘how we shall we all live together?’ In the project reported in this paper (Mutual Intercultural Relations in Plural Societies; MIRIPS), we seek to provide such research by reviewing three core psychological hypotheses of intercultural relations (multiculturalism, contact and integration) in 21 culturally plural societies. The main goal of the project is to evaluate these hypotheses across societies within the MIRIPS project in order to identify if there are some basic psychological principles that underlie intercultural relations panculturally. If there are, the eventual goal is to employ the findings to propose some policies and programmes that may improve the quality of intercultural relationship globally. An internal meta‐analysis using the MIRIPS project data showed that the empirical findings from these societies generally support the validity of the three hypotheses. Implications for the development of policies and programmes to enhance the quality of intercultural relations are discussed.
Increased cultural diversity has led to considerable debate on how to best promote intergroup harmony within pluralistic nations. In the current research, we consider the nature of interculturalism, ...a new diversity ideology extensively discussed by political philosophers and policy‐makers in Europe and beyond. Interculturalism consists of three interrelated components of dialogue, unity, and identity flexibility. Using data (N = 2,364) from three national surveys in two ethnically diverse nations (Netherlands and USA), we test a new measure of interculturalism and establish its independence from multiculturalism and assimilation. We then demonstrate that interculturalism predicts positive intergroup outcomes, over and above multiculturalism, and is in a theoretically meaningful way related to various criterion measures. Collectively, these studies establish the uniqueness of interculturalism from multiculturalism and demonstrate its promise for improving intergroup relations in culturally diverse nations.
Se analiza la necesidad de la formación pedagógico-cultural de los etnoeducadores para desarrollar los Proyectos de Aula-Comunidad (PA-C) en el contexto de la triada educación- culturalengua en la ...búsqueda de la interculturalidad como ideal de convergencia de las diversidades. La metodología cualitativa, con diseño etnográfico y el trabajo de campo brindaron los cimientos para la observación in situ, la selección de los interlocutores -docentes/etnoeducadores-, la aplicación de encuestas y entrevistas semiestructuradas permitieron la sistematización de la información. Se resalta el rol del docente/etnoeducador para la ejecución de los PA-C, se cuestiona el modelo que ha impuesto la escuela en el cumplimiento de una experiencia de saberes y conoceres y se insta desde la educación intercultural la generación de ámbitos de convivencia que garanticen el ejercicio de valores que posee una cultura para relacionarse con los sujetos de otras. La investigación convoca a la reflexión y necesidad de impactar el Sistema educativo local y regional a través de la praxis etnopedagógica.
Race, culture, and ethnicity are critical components of the human experience, yet they are often treated as nuisance variables or as post hoc explanations for poorly predicted results. Mandates to ...pay attention to ethnocultural diversity in research have largely been ignored. Here, we affirm some basic principles of multicultural psychology in conceptually grounded research. We first identify the importance of clear and conceptually guided ethnocultural research, and describe multiple perspectives in the field. The first perspective, a generalizability approach, seeks to find similarities and universalities across diverse groups. The second perspective, a group differences approach, attempts to determine the generalizability and limits to generalizability across different groups that are assumed to represent different cultures. The third perspective, multicultural psychology, involves specifying and measuring the mechanisms of cultural influences on behavior in ethnocultural groups underrepresented in research. In contrast to conventional approaches to culture that apply existing models to other groups, we propose an "inside-out" model that prizes the perspectives of those in ethnocultural communities that are underrepresented in research and places a secondary emphasis on generalizability. We follow with examples and new directions for multicultural psychology research. This approach has the potential to enhance researchers' ability to answer conceptually derived research questions and in combination with the other approaches promises to enhance the advancement of psychological science generally.
The initial version of the Multicultural Guidelines, titled Guidelines on Multicultural Education, Training, Research, Practice, and Organizational Change for Psychologists, was published in 2002. ...Since then, there has been significant growth in research and theory regarding multicultural contexts. The revised Multicultural Guidelines are conceptualized to reconsider diversity and multicultural practice within professional psychology at this period in time, with intersectionality as its primary purview. Psychologists are encouraged to incorporate developmental and contextual antecedents of identity and consider how they can be acknowledged, addressed, and embraced to generate more effective models of professional engagement. The Multicultural Guidelines incorporate broad reference group identities that acknowledge within-group differences and the role of self-definition. Identity is shaped across contexts and time by cultural influences including age, generation, gender, gender identity, ethnicity, race, religion, spirituality, language, sexual orientation, social class, education, employment, ability status, national origin, immigration status, and historical as well as ongoing experiences of marginalization. The theoretical model, a layered ecological model of the Multicultural Guidelines, is presented along with 10 corresponding guidelines. The guidelines are applicable to psychologists in their work with clients, students, research participants, and in practice, education, research, and/or consultation.
The 3‐factor structure of the Normative Multiculturalism Scale (NMS)—Contact with Diversity (CD), Multicultural Ideology (MI), and Multicultural Policies and Practices (MPP)—was tested and confirmed ...with community samples from New Zealand (N = 381) and the United States (N = 311). Correlations with criterion measures (e.g., perceived minority disadvantage and attitudes to diversity) supported the criterion validity of the subscales. NMS factors were then examined as predictors of social connectedness in a British community sample (N = 347). Hierarchical multiple regression revealed that MI predicted general trust, and MI and MPP predicted national attachment. While MPP was associated with greater perceived threat, this relationship was dampened by the joint influences of MI and CD. The research presents a novel perspective on multiculturalism by adopting a normative approach and examining the main and interaction effects of contact with diversity, multicultural ideology, and multicultural policies on interpersonal and intergroup outcomes.
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