"Multiculturalism"

Lecture #18: "Multiculturalism"
Sylva Frisk was originally scheduled to present this lecture but Dariush Moaven Doust filled in at the last minute.

Here are the highlights:

- Multiculturalism is an empty signifier (Laclau); it can mean anything and nothing.

4 Antinomies:

- 1st: Clash versus Dialogue
- 2nd: Principles versus Tolerance
- 3rd: Cultural Identity versus Social Situations
-4th: Ethnicity versus Class

Particularities versus Universals
- This antinomy subsumes all the above.
-"Universal" has long been criticized by post-colonial theorists.
-Particularities don't exist until they are compared with others.
-The problem with particularities is if your identity is defined in relation to "the other," we just have a bunch of particularities.
- Thus everyone is different in the same way.
- The defense of particularities yields universal similarity.
- What remains is commodities: You can buy and sell particularities.
-Universal propositions that start with the term "all" inherently reflect power.
- Multiculturalism implies a critique to universalism.