Anti-essentialism in multicultural societies: facilitating multicultural discourse through tolerance of cultural pluralism

Approaching anti-essentialism from the perspective of multiculturalism this article reexamines the value of tolerance in dealing with inter-cultural conflicts and in facilitation of multicultural discourses. It asserts that tolerance can be a potentially useful practice in specific local contexts, but it is not an ideal in itself. The article questions the role of public administration in building tolerance for cultural diversity and argues that providing visible forms of public recognition of cultural practices could be one possible role for government agencies.