The Resilience of Multiculturalism is a Festschrift engaged with the work of Tariq Modood. Let me first point out that this book is not the type of Festschrift that consists of a collection of personal memories or disparate contributions written for a small circle of friends. On the contrary, the contributions in this Festschrift are largely accessible for a larger academic audience, and the book has a theoretical focus. The focus of the book stems from the fact that Modood has been a key contributor and one of the most persuasive voices in the academic debates on multiculturalism for several decades.
The work of Modood has primarily had developments in British society as its starting point, and he has written widely on the inclusion of British Muslims into British multiculturalism. Yet, his work on multiculturalism clearly has a relevance worldwide. Both the theory and practice of multiculturalism have come under pressure in recent years, but Modood has consistently defended the concept. He has thus become a key voice in the continued support of multiculturalism as a theory, practice and academic interest. He is especially known for his arguments on the inclusion of religious communities into the framework of multiculturalism, and the necessity of developing an inclusive national identity as part of multiculturalism. Thus, he has developed his own brand of normative multiculturalism, which he refers to as a ‘multicultural nationalism’ (e.g. Modood 2019a). Modood is a key theorist in the ‘Bristol School of Multiculturalism’ (Levey 2019), which builds upon a long history of research on race, ethnicity and nationalism at the University of Bristol, where Modood was a longstanding director of the Centre for the Study of Ethnicity and Citizenship.
The Resilience of Multiculturalism has collected a group of prominent scholars to reflect on issues central to the work of Modood. The three book editors and some of the chapter authors can be seen as, to a varying extent, connected to the Bristol School of Multiculturalism, but most of the chapter authors have other backgrounds and have been engaged in debates with Modood on various aspects of his work. All in all, the book provides an impressive collection of topical debates on multiculturalism. The book starts with an introductory chapter by the editors on ‘Modoodian Multiculturalism’, which provides a general introduction to the content of the book. The rest of the book consists of 14 chapters divided into four parts: ‘Orientations and Underpinnings’; ‘The Inclusion of Diversity’; ‘Multiculturalism, Nationalism and Transnationalism’, and ‘Multiculturalism and Secularism’, which reflect key aspects of the work of Modood, and, in part, suggest new directions of research.
The first part of the book deals with the background and the more fundamental aspects of Modood’s theorisation. David Boucher discusses Modood’s early relationship to both philosophy and politics, or theory and practice, which is traced by Boucher in the philosophical debates of British idealism that were in focus in Modood’s PhD (Chapter 1). This background is not explicit in Modood’s work on multiculturalism, since he later moved first into political theory and later into more sociological perspectives, but Boucher argues that philosophy implicitly clears the way for, and justifies, Modood’s role as a public intellectual. The following chapter by Sune Lægaard takes its starting point in the specific case of the Danish Cartoons of Muhammad, which led to a long-term academic debate that both Modood and Lægaard were significantly involved in (Chapter 2). Lægaard points out that Modood’s proclaimed emphasis on contextualisation was not fully achieved in the debate, especially concerning the particularities of the Danish context of the case. The third contribution is by Modood’s collaborator Simon Thompson, who outlines the distinctive ways in which the politics of recognition plays a key role in Modood’s theory of multiculturalism (Chapter 3). The chapter helpfully unpacks the key themes of equality, struggles, identity and inclusion. Thompson both presents the arguments and critically probes the clarity and coherence of Modood’s idea of recognition.
The second part of the book deals with the key task of multiculturalism being to include diversity and overcome divisions in contemporary democracies. The issues at stake are aptly outlined by Charles Taylor in the first chapter of this part of the book (Chapter 4). Taylor is undoubtedly a leading political philosopher, and his work on the concept of recognition is fundamental in the theory of multiculturalism. This chapter emphasises the need for a unifying ‘political identity’ among contemporary democracies, and the chapter also covers recent political developments that challenge unifying narratives. Taylor discusses various national narratives that support societal inclusion, and he concludes that intercultural stories, rather than the Canadian multicultural stories, may better suit the situation of many European countries. Gurpreet Mahajan engages more explicitly with the normative multiculturalism of Modood (Chapter 5). Her chapter provides a general discussion of some of the fundamental elements of Modood’s theory, and she identifies several unfinished tasks that need further attention among multiculturalists. The British context of multiculturalism is further outlined in the chapter by Maleiha Malik (Chapter 6), which provides a history of the development of British multiculturalism and racial discrimination legislation during a period of 50 years ‘from British Empire to Brexit Britain’ (p. 122). Malik provides an informative historical overview and convincing arguments as to why the history of being British has to be understood within a context of colonial legacy.
Issues of nationalism are further developed in the third part of the book. Will Kymlicka is the key theorist on liberal multiculturalism and thus one of the theorists that Modood largely has related to, critiqued and debated in his own work. In this book, Kymlicka contributes a chapter on the link between multiculturalism and nationalism, and especially aims to entangle the link by situating the concepts in relation to an ‘ethics of membership’ (Chapter 7). In this chapter, Kymlicka builds upon the concept of citizenship of T.H. Marshall, and outlines the task to save Marshallian citizenship with the help of multicultural nationalism. However, Kymlicka also reports on some recent cross-national survey data that point towards challenges involved in this task. The chapter by Geoffrey Brahm Levey provides an overview of the differences and similarities of Modood’s multicultural nationalism and Kymlicka’s liberal nationalism (Chapter 8). This exceptionally clear overview of the debate is very welcome since Modood and Kymlicka themselves ‘cannot agree on whether their positions disagree’ (p. 166). While Kymlicka argues that Modood’s position on cultural rights well can be included in his own position, Modood has argued that the multicultural nationalism he proposes is significantly different in terms of its emphasis on broadening national identity. The chapter by Levey does a very good job in clarifying this debate and the respective positions of Kymlicka and Modood. The chapters by Riva Kastoryano (Chapter 9) and Anna Triandafyllidou (Chapter 10), respectively, suggest new perspectives that are not included in Modood’s work. Kastoryano suggests that transnational politics may produce identities that challenge the multicultural nationalism of Modood, while Triandafyllidou comments on technological and social transformations involving complex forms of migration and mobility, which may influence our sense of identity and belonging.
A key theoretical contribution of Modood has concerned the necessity of an inclusion of religious identities in national identity, which relates to fundamental questions of the nature of the secularism of contemporary democracies. Thus, the fourth and final part of the book includes chapters on secularism and multiculturalism. Cécile Laborde juxtaposes the conceptualisations of race and religion in the work of Rawls and Modood, respectively (Chapter 11), while Rajeev Bhargava outlines Modood’s ‘moderate secularism’ and also provides a critique of some of the key aspects of it (Chapter 12). Bhikhu Parekh’s work on multiculturalism has greatly influenced Modood, and it is therefore fitting that Parekh has contributed a chapter with a concluding discussion on the importance and limits of a secular state (Chapter 13).
The final chapter of the book is a response from Modood on all the contributions (Chapter 14). This provides an insight into his relation to the authors, and he comments on key arguments of each of the chapters, including comments on both theoretical agreements and disagreements. This final chapter thus also provides an insight into possible future directions and developments of Modoodian multiculturalism.
Thanks to the diverse and critical perspectives by several key theorists, the book provides important insights into contemporary academic debates on multiculturalism. The contributions of the book not only present the theoretical arguments of Modood, but also engage in developing these and provide critical assessments of his work. The book is still a Festschrift, which in this case means that the emphasis is on scholarly dialogue, reflecting on rather than introducing the work of Modood. As such, this book is not aimed to be an introductory book, and Modood’s short introductory book Multiculturalism (Modood 2013), or his collection Essays on Secularism and Multiculturalism (Modood 2019b) can still be recommended as entry points to Modood’s approach to multiculturalism. Yet, The Resilience of Multiculturalism is clearly a key book for anybody with an interest in the work of Modood, and it is also of significance for research on normative multiculturalism and questions related to minority rights, citizenship and national identity.
Competing Interests
The author has no competing interests to declare.