Multiculturalism in the city: managing diversity ERSA 2003 CONGRESS

This paper analyses theories of multiculturalism from the perspective of urban sociology. It considers ways in which the phenomenon is defined, problems identified with it and proposed management strategies. It does so by reviewing the challenges multiculturalism poses for the model of liberal citizenship. This is followed by an analysis of models of citizen participation that aim to reflect this diversity. Particular attention is devoted to models of aggregate and deliberative democracy originating from the work of Iris Young. While multiculturalism encompasses a variety of phenomena, the focus here is on that classic multiculturalist paradigm, immigration. The paper concludes with theoretical reflections and the presentation of four types of multicultural city, four approaches to managing the ethnic and cultural diversity of the European city: exclusion city, assimilation city, difference city and multicultural city