MULTICULTURALISM IN AGE OF “POSTMODERNITY”

Abstract

The end of the last century, the time of ambivalence, the theoretical dimension of spread between the end of the story of Francis Fukuyama and Samuel Huntington's clash of civilizations. This period gave rise to posing a series of questions pertaining to the new social relations, especially those ones that exist between the members of different cultures. This restricted the territorial area to the European continent. The author will attempt to answer two questions related to the theme of this article: first, what is multiculturalism?; second, what is the nature of the relationship between the phenomenon of urbanization and multiculturalism? Attempting to answer these questions required the adoption of the following assumptions: 1) multiculturalism is a new phenomenon associated with the postmodern project, and therefore with the period following World War II and decolonization, 2) urbanization is a form of life enjoyed by the growing part of humanity. It encourages innovation and differentiation phenomena. Understanding the importance of these processes and bringing the issue of multiculturalism as one of the most urgent challenges of our times are necessary to prevent the development of the dangerous strategies of social conduct, present in the project of postmodernity, summarily referred to as fundamentalisms, either religious or cultural ones.