Social Construction On Cultural Multiculturalism

Abstract

<p>This paper aims to disseminate the results of the study and get feedback about the "Social construction on Multiculturalism". Five years ago, Ahimsa Putra (2011) stated that Indonesia adopted pluralism without multiculturalism. Until now the issue of multiculturalism has become something that must be kept alive in an attempt to minimize the incidence of national disintegration. Winter (2015) tried to rethink multiculturalism by taking a lesson from Canada, where the people experienced setbacks in implementing the work program of multiculturalism. While Pakulski (2014) considered the implementation of multiculturalism policy program in Australia as a blur, Scuzzarello (2015), optimistically invited to care about multiculturalism and re power sharing on different communities. Gozdecka et al. (2014), in recent years after multiculturalism was declared, stated that it was a failure both in Europe and in Anglophone West. This study was conducted in Blitar, using a qualitative approach to data collection methods and also interviews with ten informants. The result showed that the community was concerned with the existence of multiculturalism; they considered themselves as ‘brother’. In addition, they described that: (a) asserting one's cultural identity, studying and assessing the cultural heritage of a person is important; (b) respecting and having a desire to understand and learn about (and from) other cultures is useful; (c) being always delighted with the presence of different cultures in the community, and considering it as a positive thing to be respected and maintained is crucial. The harmony was found in everyday lives, especially in the Religious and National holidays, for example Eid Al-Fitr, Vesak, Christmas, and other religious holidays. Also, it could be seen during the Commemoration of National Holiday such as the Independence Day and the Youth Pledge Day.</p><p> </p><p><strong>Keywords: </strong><em>social construction, pluralism, multiculturalism, Indonesia</em>.<strong><em></em></strong></p>