Transforming Korea into a multicultural society: reception of multiculturalism discourse and its discursive disposition in Korea

Since 2005, multicultural-based words such as multicultural society, multicultural family, and multicultural education have grown explosively in Korean society. Due to this social trend, adoption of the term multiculturalism has become a trend within the government and press to explain current social changes in Korea. Nevertheless, there have been few efforts to tackle multiculturalism as a crucial political project or a considerable academic theme of discussion. Thus, this study aims to examine how multiculturalism discourse in Korea has been received and draws its discursive disposition. It argues how the media, especially the press, incorporate other crucial issues such as ‘diversity’, ‘human rights’, and ‘minority politics’ in terms of multiculturalism. To analyse, a total of 275 journal articles were selected and scrutinised. This study contextualises Korean multiculturalism and suggests a meta-picture of the discursive economy of multiculturalism in Korea.     

Ethnic mobilization in 2015 local elections in North Sumatra,Indonesia

Since Indonesia implemented the regional decentralization in 2001, ethnic politics attracted increasing scholarly attention. In the regional head elections, ethnic mobilization has become a pervasive phenomenon. Drawing upon the data in the 2015 local elections in the North Sumatra province, the article discusses two related questions, the strategy and the effect of ethnic mobilization. The article argues that, contrary to the minimum winning coalition theory, there is a weak correlation between the ethnic demography and the choice of ethnic mobilization strategy (bonding or bridging). Among all the ethnic mobilization tactics, the support of ethnic organizations may have a weak to moderate and positive impact on the voting results, while other tactics, including pairing with candidates of other ethnic groups and cultural presentations of ethnic identity, do not have much influence on the election results.     

Public policy in a multicultural Australia

The debate on the consequences of large-scale immigration in the making of public policy began in 1968. Muliculturalism is for all Australians and any social policy designed for the benefit of one group in the population must have profound consequences on all people. 40% of the Australian population was born overseas or have at least 1 parent born overseas. Almost 1/4 of the population has ethnic roots in other than the Anglo-Celtic majority. The ideal of moral progress, greater equality, and improvement is the motive force in society. The presence of social heterogeneity--religious or ethnic--is linked with the issue of stability in a democratic system. There are 2 models of multiculturalism and corresponding public policy approaches. 1 model emphasizes the role of the political processes in Australian ethnic relations and sees ethnic structures (political, social, economic) as legitimate but separate interest groups, each having the exclusive responsibility for the realization of ethnic goals. The leading feature of this model is the structural fragmentation of Australian society into parallel segments of varying degrees of exclusiveness each with its own "ethnic" label. The 2nd model stresses the priority of the wholeness and welfare of the entire society. It assumes that a society based on satisfaction of individual needs through voluntary exchange is fertile ground for cultural enrichment. The goal is cohesion and unity in living together in Australia, seen as of central concern and consistent with the ideals of intercultural understanding and improved communication. The model assumes that the culture must be seen as a living, dynamic, changing, and interacting set of life patterns. The author prefers the 2nd model which stresses that the future vision of a multicultural Australia must be a shared one because only then can cultural diversity and national cohesion coexist within the 1 economic and political unit.     

The influence of a multicultural teacher education program on teachers’ multicultural practices

This study examined the multicultural classroom practices of two novice secondary English teachers employed by the same US school district that serves a diverse student population. Findings indicated a high level of consistency between the teachers’ intended multicultural practices and their implemented practices. Based on classroom observations, both teachers implemented the general multicultural practices of critical pedagogy, real life application, student choice, multicultural literature, individual student attention, cultural physical adaptation, active learning and cooperative grouping. The factors supporting multicultural infusion were the teachers’ previous experiences with diverse populations, the teachers’ own previous meaningful high school experiences and the teachers’ backgrounds that were similar to their students. The impeding factors were the structure of the school, time constraints, racism and tracking.     

Ethnic mobilization,multiculturalism and the political process in two Belgian cities: Antwerp and Liège

Next to discussing aspects of the political and social situation of migrant ethnic communities in two Belgian cities, this article provides interesting insight into identity politics in contemporary Belgium divided between the Flemish emphasis on cultural and linguistic homogenization and hegemonization and the Walloon focus on citizenship. This fundamental ideological split influences also how multiculturalism is discussed and practiced in the two parts of Belgium in general and in Antwerp and Liege in particular.     

Islamophobia in the media: a response from multicultural education 1

This paper looks at the media in Germany and Australia in order to focus on the question of how Islam is accepted in both countries, and the extent to which Islamophobia exists. It was discovered that, for the most part, the media in both countries present a somewhat biased view of Muslims and Islam. However, there were some significant differences: (1) a higher acceptance of multiculturalism in the Australian media, which is revealed in the greater number of articles on ordinary, everyday multicultural life; (2) differences in the portrayal of migrants’ roles; and (3) the terminology used to refer to migrants. The paper concludes by outlining the ways in which multicultural education could contribute to a reduction of Islamophobia.     

Cosmopolitan stance negotiation in multicultural academic settings

Our analysis of an informal event involving Chinese and Spanish students and lecturers displays the cumulative nature of stance negotiation in multicultural settings. It also highlights the role of sociocultural and ideological elements in stancetaking, not only in relation to the positions adopted by the participants, but also in the successive redefinition and reframing of the stance objects. Sociocultural and ideological elements are also crucial for the collective construction of intersubjectivities, particularly among mobile citizens. The way in which our international students managed to overcome misalignments, the values and ideologies evoked within the interaction, reveal nuances of cosmopolitanism that point to a globalization of tastes triggered by multiculturalism and the worldwide expansion of capitalism. Sharing a cosmopolitan orientation, however, did not prevent ideological contradictions among the participants. An analysis of how these were voiced and negotiated allows grasping the remarkably wide spectrum of cosmopolitanism(s) today.     

Bitter strawberries: the construction of differences in a multicultural school: a case study

This paper presents the results of a case study looking at the views of teachers and other educational professionals pertaining to the academic progress and general integration of immigrant schoolchildren in multicultural schools in the province of Huelva (Andalusia, Spain). It is organised into three sections: first, the geographical and social context of the study is described, focusing in particular on the impact on schools of migratory trends within the province associated with strawberry cultivation. This is followed by a presentation of the results of a field study into the educational panorama of immigrant pupils from various countries, drawing on verbal reports by teachers and school administrators. Finally, some conclusions are suggested for possible categories of analysis with a view to opening new lines of research in the future.     

No Expo Network: a failed mobilization in a post-political frame

In 2015 Milan hosted the Universal Exposition with the theme ‘Feeding the Planet, Energy for Life’. Even if characterized by various scandals and problems, the edition was narrated by the mainstream media as a political and economic success. Critical voices were almost completely obscured by favorable propaganda and the ideas of development and the future proposed by the Expo rhetoric was presented as inevitable, configuring ‘the best of all possible worlds’ in a more general post-political frame. In this profile I first present the main characteristics of the No Expo Network, e.g. the actors that composed it and the main critiques that they advanced. I will then focus on the reasons for its defeat, which is then contextualized in relation to the election of the Chief Executive Officer of Expo 2015 as new Mayor of Milan. Here, we can see the continuation and structural strengthening of the neoliberal politics of Expo2015 beyond the mega event itself.     

Governing multicultural populations and family life

Shortly after coming to power in Britain, the Conservative–Liberal Democratic alliance placed family life at the heart of their political agenda, and set out their plans to reform adoption. The paper draws upon debates about the reforms and considers them in articulation with concerns about health of the nation expressed in political pronouncements on ‘broken Britain’ and the failures of ‘state multiculturalism’. The paper considers the debates about domestic (transracial) and intercountry adoption, and uses feminist postcolonial perspectives to argue that we can only understand what are expressed as national issues within a transnational and postcolonial framework which illuminate the processes of state and institutional race‐making. The paper analyses three key instances of biopower and governmentality in the adoption debates: the population, the normalizing family and the individual. The paper argues that we need to understand the reforms as part of a wider concern with the ‘problem’ of multicultural belonging, and that the interlocking discourses of nation, family and identities are crucial to the constitution and regulation of gendered, racialized subjects.     

Canada's demographic outlook and multicultural immigration

The author investigates the possible role of future immigration on Canada's demographic processes. It is suggested that immigration will have an important role in light of declines in the rate of natural increase as well as trends in demographic aging. The implications of future immigration for both migration and social policy are considered, with a focus on changes in the cultural and ethnic composition of the population resulting from immigration. (SUMMARY IN FRE AND SPA)     

Social dynamics of the multicultural classroom

Instruction and learning are socially determined activities, where social forces such as classroom atmosphere, social feelings, cultural sentiments, prejudice and stereotyping, interpersonal relations and expectations, as well as the reflection of social reality in subject matter all have a significant influence on the effectiveness of teaching and learning. The effective "multicultural" teacher has to be concerned about each individual student, and also be sensitive to the group and cultural affiliations of each of his or her students. Intercultural relations in the classroom may be a source of knowledge and mutual enrichment between culturally diverse learners if managed proactively by teachers. Frustration, misapprehensions and intercultural conflict are a more likely outcome if teachers do not deal with diversity in a sensitive manner.     

Integrating ICT and multicultural aspects within a classroom: the SAIL project

The implementation of technology in the primary school sector during the last few years has resulted in issues being raised relating to teachers’ knowledge of technology and their propensities for incorporating ICT into an already packed curriculum. Teachers in Malta were faced with challenges to their various teaching professional knowledge and to their prior and developing understanding of the conceptual and procedural aspects of technology. SAIL provided opportunities for teachers to develop their understandings of minorities in Europe within a community of teachers, while at the same time promoting technology both as a process and a product.