Beyond Multiculturalism: Conflict, Co-Existence, and Messy Identities

Taking Moland’s article as a starting point, the chapter suggests that debates about “exporting” and “importing” concepts like multiculturalism need to be realigned with new theoretical and practical understandings of how identities work. We offer two primary categories of concerns. First, focusing on “exporting” multiculturalism inadvertently obscures complex intersectionalities between and among various identities, including ethnic and religious identities, gender and sexuality, and issue of power in state, local, and global North/South hierarchies. Second, multiculturalism’s focus on outcomes – in particular, achieving an appreciation for “other” cultures – is an outdated approach to addressing difference. Taken together, we argue that multiculturalism is an outmoded framework that does not map neatly onto the lived experience of identity or on how conflicts are resolved and is thus ineffective as a framework for conflict-prevention work. We suggest that research on reconciliation and conflict prevention instead could be situated in ways that view identities as porous, complex, contradictory, multiple, and varied. In this light, identities are messy rather than clear-cut; they can surge and retreat in relevance for individuals and communities at any given time, such that their value for an individual at any one point may not be easy to consciously articulate. Understanding identities in this way has implications for pedagogical interventions. Rather than pursuing interventions designed to promote an outcome of equal and celebratory acceptance of defined “others,” we call for interventions focused on process, thereby equipping individuals with the skills to continually work toward co-existence in communities where conflicts are marked by repeated fractures, tension, and messy identities.