The Politics of Culturalism

Abstract

Chapter 8 examines the fraught relationship between multiculturalism and the politics of culturalism. Debates over the nature and scope of culturalism implicit within multiculturalism discourses attest to the complexities in assessing whether cultures matter, including how and why, where and when (also Henrich 2020). The chapter acknowledges how the culturalism in multiculturalism tends to frame culture and cultural differences in ways misleading, contrary to human rights, and at odds with the more complex and fluid realities of a world in disarray. It also demonstrates how reference to culturalism may undermine women’s gender equality rights, especially in those multicultural jurisdictions that endorse the principle of group specific cultural rights. The chapter concludes with an extended look at the controversies that shape the cultural appropriation debate. Any assessment as to the in/appropriateness of cultural appropriation depends on the frame of reference employed. But conceptualizing cultural appropriation as a form of microaggression provides one option in responding to “who has the final say”.