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Conference Announcement "Multination States: East and West" Interdisciplinary Workshop Ethnicity and Democratic Governance Project University of Toronto Toronto, ON (Canada) 21-22 September 2007 __________________________________________________ A gap appears to be opening between the implementation of diversity in certain regions and a growing international discourse on multination states, with an emphasis on the recognition of diversity. In advanced industrialized countries of North America and Europe, struggles for recognition as nations, and democratic institutions to accommodate multiple nations within states, has transformed traditional conceptions of the nation-state. By contrast, in Asia the notion of the unitary nation-state continues to dominate, despite growing pressures to recognize multinationality and diversity. In Europe and North America, the fact of multination states is acknowledged by adopting constitutional and institutional modifications recognizing and empowering national minorities. Furthermore, policies and discourses are aimed at accommodating national minorities even when formal recognition is rejected. In Asia, however, where recognition has been granted, it has often been merely symbolic; where institutions appear to accommodate diversity, they are often accompanied by policies or other institutions that undermine diversity. Asian leaders have repeatedly attempted to reassert the primacy of the unitary nation-state and restrict the accommodation of cultural diversity. The workshop will contrast Asian cases with the dominant trend of the European/North American context by asking: what have been the main pressures leading to more recognition of multinational diversity in Europe/North America? What are the pressures for such recognition and accommodation in Asia? Why have these pressures led instead to resistance in Asia, and a reassertion of the nation-state? What are the consequences of adopting certain institutions recognizing diversity in Asian cases, yet underming these through other policies and practices? The workshop, to be held at the Munk Centre for International Studies (University of Toronto), will explore these questions through empirical and normative dimensions. Organizers: Jacques Bertrand (University of Toronto) Email: [email protected] André Laliberté (Université du Quebéc à Montréal) Email: [email protected] Workshop summary: http://www.queensu.ca/edg/workshops2007.html __________________________________________________ InterPhil List Administration: http://interphil.polylog.org Intercultural Philosophy Calendar: http://cal.polylog.org
