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published_or_final_version / Urban Planning / Master / Master of Science in Urban Planning

Every theory of liberal multiculturalism is premised on some account of the nature of culture, cultural difference and social reality, or what I call “the conditions of multiculturality”. In this dissertation, I offer a revised account of the conditions and challenge of multiculturality. Beginning with the widely accepted idea that individuals depend on both culture and community as social preconditions for choice, freedom and autonomy, and informing this idea with collectivist and individualist lessons from Tyler Burge’s famous externalist thought-experiment, my analysis shows that social contexts are multicultural when they are characterized by a plurality of social communities offering distinct sets of cultural norms, and individuals are multicultural to the extent that they are capable of using cultural norms from various social communities. The depth, pervasiveness, and complexity of multiculturality raises important normative questions about fair and just terms for protecting and promoting social communities under conditions of internal and external cultural contestation, and these questions are not only restricted to cases involving internal minorities. As a theory of cultural justice, liberal multiculturalism must respond to the challenge of multiculturality generated by cultural difference per se, but it cannot do so adequately in all cases armed with only the traditional tools of toleration, freedom of association and exit, fundamental rights and freedoms, and internal political autonomy. My analysis demonstrates that, upon the revised conception of multiculturality, liberal theories of tolerationism, egalitarianism and nationalism leave significant cultural remainders, or unaccounted for cultural interests. What is needed is a different liberal multiculturalism, which respects the individual’s fundamental rights and freedoms, is committed to the equal and just treatment of individuals, tolerates voluntary cultural groups and practices in the social sphere, recognizes an individual right to culture, and provides some measure of state assistance to individuals seeking to protect and promote their cultural communities in the private sphere. This is a recipe for liberal cultural justice, and for a defensible liberal multiculturalism without nationalism. / Thesis (Ph.D, Philosophy) -- Queen's University, 2012-12-14 19:00:46.433

The present study explores the cultural implications associated with the intensive presence of foreign labour in the modern and young UAE, with special focus on the potential impact on the cultural particularities forming national identity.  To this end, the study examines the evolution and reality of multicultural society in the country, in conjunction with multiculturalism ideologies, policies and modes pursued elsewhere. The issue is addressed from contextual, conceptual, empirical and comparative perspectives; thus the study concludes that the de facto multiculturalism experienced in the UAE is rather a complex unique model that should be understood on its own merits.  Inter-related topics including globalization, civilisational dialogue and cultural engagement, as being inseparable from the subject matter, are thoroughly discussed, with relevance to UAE’s context. The key recommendation calls for the need for earnest steps to introduce limits to the scope of tolerance prescribed, implicitly or explicitly, under public policy in order to maintain the continuity of national identity, and consequently contributes to the sustainability of the prevalent co-existence amongst various cultural communities and groups in the country, in line with the open diversified labour-intensive economy. While the present thesis is expected to help initiate discussion on cultural diversity in the UAE, a number of fields have been identified for possible further research on the state of affairs, in particular, potential threats surrounding the local religious and traditional values.

Focusing on Mirpuris and music in Bradford, this doctoral thesis offers an ethnomusicological dimension to continuing debates on multiculturalism in Britain, within the fields of anthropology, sociology and political science. I engage ethnographically with three spaces of Mirpuri music making – the mehfil, the street, and the festival – in order to develop a ground-level perspective on what it means to live in an increasingly diverse society. By paying close attention to intra-communal generational discourses and practices of music, a synchronic picture of multiculturalism is developed that takes into account local, national and transnational histories. I argue that discursive senses of belonging, articulated through and by music, offer alternative and more broadly inclusive insights into what it means to migrate to Britain, what it means to be born in Britain, and, ultimately, what it means to ‘be’ British. Drawing on theories of multiculturalism, music and migration, nationalism and segregation, my broad argument is that an ethnographic map of Mirpuri music making in Bradford provides a more contemporarily relevant picture of multicultural society than one drawn along racial, or religious, lines alone.

This document examines and analyzes solo vocal music composed by several Costa Rican composers who did not remain in Costa Rica, but rather left the country to study abroad. Unlike prior studies of Costa Rican vocal music, which have focused upon the use(s) composers made of indigenous folk elements, this study identifies foreign, non-indigenous elements that were introduced into Costa Rican vocal music by musical pioneers such as Julio Fonseca (1885-1950) and Dolores Castegnaro (1900-1979), composers who studied at various times in Italy, Belgium, France and Mexico. Excerpts of their music have been analyzed for this document to demonstrate specific international influences. Another two composers were selected due to their present importance in Costa Rican music: Eddie Mora and Marvin Camacho. In a very distinctive manner, these composers bring to the musical environment of Costa Rican diversity and exoticism in Eddie Mora's case and a mix of contemporary with Costa Rican elements with Marvin Camacho's music. In analyzing the music of these four composers, this research intends to present the different influences of other countries into Costa Rican music while Marvin Camacho brings back its own Costa Rican voice.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of the Witwatersrand, Faculty of Commerce, Law and Management, School of Law, 2013. / Conflicts of rights involving the freedom of religion should be approached on the basis of a close examination of the proper competence of law and religions. This examination begins by asking what questions law and religion are best suited to answer in a post theocratic age that views constitutional laws as operating under and within the conditions of diversity and pluralism. An analysis of religious employer exemption cases in two jurisdictions, South Africa and Canada, shows that certain contemporary “liberal” approaches fail to accord sufficient respect to associational diversity. An historical view of the relationship between law and religion, reviewing both “the goods of religion” and “the limits of law” suggests that contemporary liberalism tends to diminish the role of religions and religious associations giving too much power to the State and/or the Courts with a corresponding failure to let religions play the role within culture that their proper jurisdictions, correctly understood, admit and that an open culture requires. The analysis shows that the Canadian and South African courts have, in some cases, explicitly but more often implicitly, stepped into the role of answering metaphysical, philosophical and theological questions for which they are not suited. This problem -- erroneous jurisdictional extension by law -- is the use of law by equality activists who wish to force homogeneous conceptions such as “equality” or “non-discrimination” on all aspects of society, including religious associations, irrespective of whether those subordinate groups should be accorded the respect entailed by the principle of diversity- - a respect already allowed for in the laws related to religious employer exemptions. The arguments defending these practices inappropriately extend the ambit of law into theology and therefore away from its proper role as recognized within history, sociology, anthropology, psychology and theology. Moreover, they take liberal theory in an illiberal direction - a direction that should be rejected in favour of a conception of deep diversity. It is concluded that with a legal presumption in favour of associational diversity and the use, in adjudication of rights conflicts, of the “oculus” (that is, explicitly seeing issues that involve religious associations from the perspective of the religious association) a fairer treatment of diversity and difference can occur in constitutional democracies. An approach to rights adjudication based on this presumption and informed by this attitude will promote greater diversity and better “fit” with the principles of “pluralism”, “multiculturalism”, “diversity” and “accommodation” that underlie the modus vivendi rather than a “convergence” approach to liberalism and accord better with constitutional rights and freedoms taken as a whole.

A thesis submitted to the faculty of Humanities, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, in fulfilment of the requirements for the Doctor of Philosophy Degree in Interdisciplinary Studies, 2017 / Despite slow pace of transformation in post-apartheid South Africa’s corporate sector, the department of labour recently showcased some Johannesburg Stock Exchange listed corporations for executing effective diversity strategies. The strategies and discourses of diversity in these appraised corporations had not been studied scholarly, particularly from a critical perspective. This inquiry adopted a multiple case study design and the framework of critical diversity literacy to study the nature, texture, and the depth of strategies and discourses of diversity in three of these appraised corporations in the financial, retail, and private healthcare sectors. Research entailed analysis of 35 published documents to examine conceptual framing of diversity; indepth semi-structured interviews with 6 transformation managers to explore prevailing organisational diversity culture and the designed strategies to transform such dynamics; and focus groups with 32 employees from dominant and subordinated groups to gauge the efficacy of executed strategies in promoting equality and social justice. The findings suggest that appraised corporations mainly complied with prescripts of employment equity law and executed managerial instrumentalism oriented diversity initiatives. Diversity conceptual frameworks regarded inequality, oppression and dominance as historical legacies, rather than present day phenomena that are tied to coloniality of power and being and reproduced through neoliberalism. Diversity initiatives were minimalistic and impelled identity siloism, race and gender blindness, medicalization and hyper-individualisation of disability, nurturing of white fragility, and reproduction of gender binaries. Blacks, women, queer persons and persons with disabilities were barely visible in positions of power, strategic influence and high income. These subjugated groups constantly performed whiteness, normative masculinity, ablebodiedness and heteronormativity in order to fit in. This performance is systematised under the guise of merit without recognising its dehumanising effects. The findings suggest the inadequacy of employment equity legislation driven reform to produce real equality as this law is a product of ILO’s neoliberal “Decent Work” rhetoric. The study contributes to the closure of lacunae concerning paucity of agentic critical diversity studies that examine effective organisational diversity discourses. The study accentuates the importance of situating effective diversity discourses being evaluated in the broader context of contemporary global system of power and related hegemonic ideologies that re-produce inequality. By so doing scholars will be able to analyse the studied diversity discourses holistically and make informed decisions on their efficacy to yield social justice for the marginalised across various intersections of power, inequality and identity differences. / XL2018