Thirteenth Global Studies Conference

Abstract

Globalization has created a new dynamic reality for nation-states with an increase of immigration leading to cultural mixes. Even if it can be said that immigration movements have been mainly from the peripheral countries to the West, that system seems to become more global than ever with rising economic countries that are opening more such as China. This offers a prospect of more pluralist societies in a near-future. States have decided to adopt different policies towards multiculturalism. However, tensions between cultural homogenization and culture heterogenization are central in contemporary global interactions leading to conflictual situations. Quebec is an interesting example of such interactions with its policy or ‘’reasonable accommodation’’ which can be understood as adjustments of a system to support and offer more fairness for individuals or group of people. Multiple scholars have addressed the idea of cultural identity in such process such as Stuart Hall and Lawrence Grossberg. With the increase of multiculturalism, it is relevant to explore if reasonable accommodations are a viable solution to global multicultural challenges. This paper offers a critical analysis of this type of accommodation towards multiculturalism. It reviews prominent scholars on cultural studies and multiculturalism to contextualize reasonable accommodation. Also, it analyzes the case study of Quebec to reflect the positive and negative aspects related to such cultural accommodation. It concludes that reasonable accommodation offers a partial solution to global multiculturalism, but that cultures are to complex, different, and dynamic in a specific world-system not allowing global openness towards cultural accommodation.