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Negotiating Diversity

Culture, Deliberation, Trust

Matthew Festenstein author

Format:Paperback

Publisher:John Wiley and Sons Ltd

Published:1st Jan '07

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Negotiating Diversity cover

Debates about cultural diversity have become an important, controversial and inescapable feature of the politics of modern democracies. Negotiating Diversity offers a lucid and accessible analysis of the political theory of multiculturalism. It is an ideal text for students looking for an overview of the state of play in this area.


The book explores the work of key political philosophers such as Kymlicka, Barry and Kukathas, and draws on a range of real-world examples to illustrate its arguments. It provides a critique of the tendency to reify cultural identity in political thinking, particularly through an examination of contemporary liberalism. In its place, the author develops a deliberative alternative, which views the politics of cultural diversity as a fallible process of negotiation, argument and compromise. He confronts objections that this alternative itself presupposes a homogenous political community, and that it offers an unrealistic or oppressive vision of politics.

'Negotiating Diversity is surely one of the best introductions on the political theory of multiculturalism.'

JURA GENTIUM, Centro di filosofia del diritto internazionale e della politica globale

ISBN: 9780745624068

Dimensions: 229mm x 152mm x 13mm

Weight: 306g

240 pages