Across the West, something called multiculturalism is in crisis. Regarded as the failed experiment of liberal elites, commentators and politicians compete to denounce its corrosive legacies; parallel communities threatening social cohesion, enemies within cultivated by irresponsible cultural relativism, mediaeval practices subverting national 'ways of life' and universal values. In beautifully belligerent writing, this unique and important new book forcefully challenges this familiar narrative of the rise and fall of multiculturalism by refuting the existence of a coherent era of 'multiculturalism' in the first place. After an inspiring foreword by Guardian-journalist Gary Younge, the authors argue that what we are witnessing is not so much a rejection of multiculturalism as a rejection of lived multiculture. In documenting mainstream racism and the anxieties that inform it, Lentin and Titley show that the crisis is a projection of neoliberal societies' disjunctures. This book combines theory with a reading of contemporary events and argues that challenging this notion provides activists with a chance to ultimately transcend resurgent racism.
The Crises of Multiculturalism: Racism in a Neoliberal Age
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'Alana Lentin and Gavan Titley offer a powerful and persuasive account of how multiculturalism has been sentenced to death. Drawing on a vast array of sources, voices and examples, they show how laments on the failure of multiculturalism create a political and affective landscape in which racism is simultaneously repudiated and reproduced. A necessary and important book.' - Sara Ahmed, Professor of Race and Cultural Studies, Goldsmiths College 'This book provides a rich and scholarly analysis of the multiple forces at play in the construction of the 'death of multiculturalism' as a flexible and potent political discourse. Incisive and provocative in it's analysis; it is uncomfortable reading for those on both the left and right in politics. This is necessary reading for anyone concerned with the complex masking of racism within the rhetorical dance of national identities and globalized neo-liberal ideologies. - Professor Charles Husband, Centre for Applied Social Research, University of Bradford. 'The Crises of Multiculturalism critically examines the entanglements inherent in the broad range of European multiculturalisms today, their "loud" rejection and yet a melancholic neediness expressed in their bemoaning. The analysis is especially incisive about the ways in which an "era of integration," as multiculturalism's contemporary expression, seeks insecurely to assert authoritative control and security in the face of threatening and fearful expressions of a burgeoning multiculture supposedly marking European nations. The authors reveal how the politics of multiculturalism continue to structure, reproduce, and render less visible contemporary racisms.Those concerned to understand the synchrony of multiculturalism, integration, and revitalized racisms across the European landscape would do well to consult this book.' - Professor David Theo Goldberg, University of California
About the Author
Alana Lentin is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Sociology, University of Sussex, UK. Gavan Titley is Lecturer in the School of English, Media and Theatre Studies, National University of Ireland Maynooth, Ireland.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
By K. Withnail
Format:Paperback
This book is an astounding piece of scholarship.
Every page is crammed with pin-point analysis of nearly every single book on the topic. Check their bibliography - it's twenty-four pages long. Yes, it's dense, yes, its arguments are heavily nuanced and complex. But of course it is - this is a field that for the last twenty years has been steadily dominated by staid, lumpen critiques with the simplicity of a housebrick, as the authors themselves say in the first chapter, where they state that the complexity of the book is a deliberate, considered response to this.
And frankly it is far more readable than the absurd caricature of the below review suggests, whose author has purposefully picked what they found the most difficulty with to quote. There are some scintillating sentences in this book, not only readable, but with the weight of scholarship behind them, positively uplifting. Consider "...the primary 'recited truth' of crisis politics: that 'race' is a fiction, and racism, when it is discussed is dismissed as a fraught, accusatory moralism", or "The progressive yardsticks waved at migrants, who are always already presumed backward, belies the fact that there are few Western states whose legal practices and clusters of dominant opinion are as liberal as their rhetoric when it comes to feminism and LGBT rights.".
I have yet to find a serious argument advanced about multiculturalism that is not dealt with capably and concisely in this book. It is one of the best pieces of work about the subject that I have ever read, and certainly in the last twenty years. Lentin and Titley should feel very proud of themselves - this is essential reading, indeed a definitive work.
Every page is crammed with pin-point analysis of nearly every single book on the topic. Check their bibliography - it's twenty-four pages long. Yes, it's dense, yes, its arguments are heavily nuanced and complex. But of course it is - this is a field that for the last twenty years has been steadily dominated by staid, lumpen critiques with the simplicity of a housebrick, as the authors themselves say in the first chapter, where they state that the complexity of the book is a deliberate, considered response to this.
And frankly it is far more readable than the absurd caricature of the below review suggests, whose author has purposefully picked what they found the most difficulty with to quote. There are some scintillating sentences in this book, not only readable, but with the weight of scholarship behind them, positively uplifting. Consider "...the primary 'recited truth' of crisis politics: that 'race' is a fiction, and racism, when it is discussed is dismissed as a fraught, accusatory moralism", or "The progressive yardsticks waved at migrants, who are always already presumed backward, belies the fact that there are few Western states whose legal practices and clusters of dominant opinion are as liberal as their rhetoric when it comes to feminism and LGBT rights.".
I have yet to find a serious argument advanced about multiculturalism that is not dealt with capably and concisely in this book. It is one of the best pieces of work about the subject that I have ever read, and certainly in the last twenty years. Lentin and Titley should feel very proud of themselves - this is essential reading, indeed a definitive work.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
The Crises of Multiculturalism tells the rise of Islamophobia, conveniently disguised by the left and right as the failings of 'multiculturalism'. With references to Britain's internal race politics, the tail ends of the Cold War, 9/11 all the way until present - Lentin and Titley detail how "liberalism" has appropriated the grounds of "liberation", pushing the identity politics out of the political mainstream. Racism and xenophobia are back in the ballgame, but on the most part, it's covert and illicit.
I wouldn't suggest you pick up this book if you're looking for a quick read, a simple narrative or pop-politics. The book is dense, woven through-out with compelling evidence and powerful. It would have been nice to have had fewer references and quotations across the book (it reads as an academic text) but other than that, I strongly recommend that policy-makers give this a good look. A few of us will be up in arms about these issues pretty soon if you don't.
The only question I'm left asking is: Why isn't there more about this in mainstream writing? I do hope Lentin and Titley write something for the masses too.
I wouldn't suggest you pick up this book if you're looking for a quick read, a simple narrative or pop-politics. The book is dense, woven through-out with compelling evidence and powerful. It would have been nice to have had fewer references and quotations across the book (it reads as an academic text) but other than that, I strongly recommend that policy-makers give this a good look. A few of us will be up in arms about these issues pretty soon if you don't.
The only question I'm left asking is: Why isn't there more about this in mainstream writing? I do hope Lentin and Titley write something for the masses too.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
Must read for anyone concerned about the issue of race and racism today
29 Feb 2012
By Koos Couvee
Format:Hardcover
In this book, Lentin and Titley explore how today, in what widely regarded as a post-racial era, racism increasingly finds its articulation through notions of culture, and more specifically through attacks on multiculturalism. However, they show that firstly, even amongst its critics, there is no coherent idea of what multiculturalism is and secondly, that multicultural policies persist across Europe. The book argues that the attack on multiculturalism is an attack on the multicultural reality of life in the West today. It is the possible co-existence of different groups of people that is being questioned, and this questioning has moved from the far right fringes into the heart of the mainstream political debate.
The book is an excellent account of the history of the doctrine of multiculturalism and maps multiculti critics from the left and the right. It is a must read for anyone concerned with the issue of race and racism, and offers an excellent critique of contemporary liberalism and its inability to shed its racist, Eurocentric roots.
Read my interview with Alana Lentin about the book here - [...]
The book is an excellent account of the history of the doctrine of multiculturalism and maps multiculti critics from the left and the right. It is a must read for anyone concerned with the issue of race and racism, and offers an excellent critique of contemporary liberalism and its inability to shed its racist, Eurocentric roots.
Read my interview with Alana Lentin about the book here - [...]
Most Recent Customer Reviews
4.0 out of 5 stars
Fresh, insightful take on a wellworn subject
Multiculturalism has come under increasing attack in the past two decades. It began with a backlash against affirmative action in the US in the 1990s, and intensified after 9/11... Read more
Published 2 months ago by Bare_Books
4.0 out of 5 stars
Good points
This books makes a key political point - that multiculturalism, per se, is not so much an actually existing social relationship as it is a straw man for political rhetoric and... Read more
Published 3 months ago by Kate
5.0 out of 5 stars
The Crises of Multiculturalism
i would just like to support the other positive reviews. this book is excellent. the best thing i've read on racism and multiculturalism
Published 7 months ago by missakmanouchian
5.0 out of 5 stars
how the claim of the failure of multiculturalism is related to racism
This book is one of the most informative and thoughtful analysis on the so-called demise of multiculturalism which exists in current scholarship. Read more
Published 14 months ago by shel ley
1.0 out of 5 stars
Incomprehensible - The authors may have something worthwhile to say...
I think I might agree with what the authors of this book have to say about multiculturalism. I even think that what they think might be a worthwhile subject for a book. Read more
Published 20 months ago by Jay123
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