Multiculturalism and the Need for Recognition

Mohandas K. Gandhi once said “No culture can live if it attempts to be exclusive”. This adage surely favours the ethics of multiculturalism placing the accent on the acceptance and integration of different cultures in a given society. And indeed, the basic objectives of multiculturalism have always been to assist cultural groups in retaining and fostering their identity, at the same time overcoming barriers to their full participation in society, to promote creative exchanges among all cultural groups, and to assist immigrants in coping with the inherent processes of cultural adaptation, mixing, and mélange.

In spite of all these, there are still voices which claim that multiculturalism does, in fact, undermine the main cultural identity of a state, endangering social unity and cohesion, and being a constant cause of conflict. Although there are voices which tend to emphasise the benefits of McLuhan’s “global village”, there are also pessimistic previsions which incline to the belief that the universe we now inhabit is nothing but a global dystopia in which various ethnic groups are engaged in asserting their need for recognition.

The questions we invite you to answer are:

  • What are the lessons of multiculturalism?
  • To what degree can they be implemented?
  • Should the recent negative wave of reactions against multiculturalism mean something?
  • Are the ethnic based nations ready to be initiated in a multicultural spirit?
  • Is this tentative project of a multicultural Europe going to survive?
  • Are the former colonizers going to be colonized?
  • Can we erase the identity/alterity opposition or is it more prominent than ever?
  • Having in mind Milton Bennett’s six distinct kinds of experience spread across the continuum from ethnocentrism to ethnorelativism (denial, defense, minimization, acceptance, adaptation and integration) where would we situate ourselves?
  • Is politically correct language an imposition meant to distort reality and human nature or a way to protect cultural groups?

The venue

The conference will be held in the main building of “Petre Dulfu” County Library in Baia Mare. All conference rooms are equipped with computers and projectors. The computers all run on Windows XP and use Microsoft Office 2007. Most fonts and characters are supported. If you have a PowerPoint presentation, please make sure to save it in a format compatible with PowerPoint 2007. There is WiFi internet connection at the conference venue, but also at the North University Centre and at the hotels.

“Petre Dulfu” County Library is located in the city centre and it is within a max. 10-minutes’ walk from all accommodation options.

  • Official conference languages

    The languages of the presentations might be Romanian, English, French and German.

  • Timing

    The time allotted to the presentation of a paper is 15 minutes, followed by 10-minute sessions of questions and answers.