15 Political Change and the ‘Creative Destruction’ of Public Space

Abstract

Multiculturalism is a pervasive part of human reality. Today, we most often think of multiculturalism in a 'horizontal' dimension where living cultures interact with one another and where we necessarily wrestle with the complex questions of how sometimes antagonistic cultures make their peace with one another. It is facile to suggest that there is a strong right to maintain a given culture, given the dynamism attached particularly to economic and political transformations. Creative destruction is a given, the best that can realistically be hoped for is that we become more sensitive to the costs, as well as the benefits, of such development and try to minimize the amount of unnecessary destruction. Political development brings 'creative destruction' of the public landscape. What is therefore also constant, at least in reasonably democratic politics and especially in times of political transition, is public disputation about the transformation of public space. Keywords: creative destruction; multiculturalism; political transformations; public disputation; public space