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Multicultural Nationalism Civilizing Difference, Constituting Community
by UBC Press, ISBN: 0774810009
General description: Generations of intellectuals have debated Canada's national question. Rather than join the debate, Multicultural Nationalism, ISBN: 0774810009, that is published by UBC Press, challenges its logic. The national question is self-defeating: attempts to constitute a Canadian political community generate polarizing and depoliticizing deliberations. Gerald Kernerman engages with leading political theorists and analyzes policy, constitutional, and media documents in order to examine proposals for minority rights, multicultural citizenship, asymmetrical federalism, multinationalism, and group-based representation. Even as other countries consider pursuing similar paths, Kernerman cautions against using Canada as a model since these proposals are themselves manifestations of nationalist contestation.
"Multicultural Nationalism makes an important contribution to debates about national unity and diversity in Canada. Kernerman persuasively shows how the problematic logic of thinking in terms of dichotomies is not only woven into the political and public debates, but can also be detected in the idealized and abstract works of political philosophers such as Charles Taylor and Will Kymlicka."
- Avigail Eisenberg, co-editor of Painting the Maple: Race, Gender, and the Construction of Canada. |
