Engaging Cultural Differences: The Multicultural Challenge in Liberal Democracies (review)

Because of its reliance on consent and moral regulation as well as its ideals of tolerance and inclusion, liberal democracy has always had problems with cultural difference. But in recent years — with the social changes brought by global trade and mass communications, massive transnational migration, the liberalization of citizenship laws, and the appearance of democratic institutions and ideals in many new places — these problems appear more acute and multifaceted than ever. So, how now to deal with them?

Scholars, it seems to me, have at least two distinct contributions to make in answering this question: One involves producing knowledge about the form and content of various cultural differences; the other with clarifying the practical and moral choices (and their consequences) these differences give rise to. Needing both, we are fortunate that three noted scholars from the fields of anthropology, law, and the behavioral sciences have collaborated to bring us this wonderful new collection of essays on the challenge that multiculturalism poses in contemporary liberal democracies.

Engaging Cultural Differences is composed of 21 individual contributions — primarily case studies of some type — grouped into four parts. Part 1 focuses on the legal status of groups that exercise beliefs and customs that threaten established national practice; part 2 on cultural accommodation and its limitations; part 3 on debates about human rights; and part 4 on how difference is understood and practiced in different (albeit mostly U.S.) social contexts. There is also a brief, 15-page introduction from the editors.

Neither the organization of the volume nor the theoretical framing is particularly memorable. Indeed, I was surprised to see the volume characterized as "concerned with the aims of tolerance" since this formulation is far less provocative than the active language of engagement employed in the title. (It is also in stark contrast to the way these essays were packaged when a handful of them previously appeared in a special issue of the journal Daedalus.) Additionally, I was disappointed there wasn't more on how cultural diversity is conflated with and complicated by the realities of social inequality. The intersections between difference and inequality receive considerable attention in many related fields, including the ethnic and racial studies with which I am most familiar. Indeed, the more critical strains of this work (e.g., whiteness studies, critical race theory) suggest that liberal democratic ideals are not so much opposed to prejudice, discrimination, and exclusion as in fact required by them. (A concluding chapter written by Rose Markus along with Claude and Dorothy Steele called "Colorblindness As a Barrier to Inclusion" seems intended to address such notions; however, it concentrates almost exclusively on educational practice and is a bit too-little, too-late.)

But what I think may be missing from the volume should by no means detract from the mountain of rich, stimulating material that is collected here. There are contributions on topics ranging from women and religion to interethnic relations, the culture of property, and debates about circumcision and asylum. And who would have guessed that hearings about an eighteen-year old Norwegian girl "kidnapped" by her parents and brought back to Morocco would have created a national and international spectacle? (See "Nadia's Case" by Unni Wikan.) This sheer range aptly demonstrates the complexity of the multicultural challenge, and the various chapters impressively chart how this challenge can be engaged. A discussion of each individual piece is obviously not possible here, but I know that I will be using David Chambers's chapter on marriage customs in post-apartheid South Africa, the piece from Karen Engle on the tortured role the American Anthropological Association has played in the evolution of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and Victoria Plaut's study of cultural models of diversity in the U.S. in my own teaching and research. Shweder's piece on female genital mutilation is a model of empirically grounded, morally engaged cross-cultural exposition. You will not agree with...