Plural Identities Research Articles

Epistolary Enunciation in Quebec and Indigenous Cinemas: The Letter as Identity Vector and Memory Tool

This article focuses on the use of the letter in Canadian cinema, and more particularly in Quebec films featuring plural identities that further complexify this province’s relationship with its identity and those of others. This article explores how the letter becomes a means for Quebec migrants to communicate with their family history and with their host community. It also shows how the letter is a mediator and a symbol uniting minority cultures in search of roots, for filmmakers who stage immigrants or mixed-race protagonists. Finally, I explore how the letter serves the Indigenous peoples of Canada, victims of cultural genocide, by participating in decolonization through the re-establishment of family and community ties. In doing so, the article provides a general picture of the use of the letter as an object of memory and reconciliation in contemporary Quebec and Indigenous cinemas.

Social differentiation and increasing social heterogeneity in Leipzig, Germany, in light of daily life perceptions and policy-making

Social differentiation has developed to be one of the crucial characteristics of urban development in Eastern Germany's large cities, an issue that is increasingly reflected in daily life perceptions and policy-making. This development can be especially observed in those cities that, after a phase of shrinkage in the 1990s, have seen new growth during the last years. The focus is here on social differentiation that we understand as an increase in social inequalities, and on social heterogeneity that is understood as pluralization of cultural and religious identities, lifestyles and living environments. Set against this background, the paper discusses social differentiation and increasing heterogeneity in Leipzig with a focus on daily life perceptions by the residents and local policy development. It analyses how social difference and increasing heterogeneity have become an issue for daily routines and practices as well as for policy formulation and how both perspectives interact. The paper is based on a multi-dimensional understanding of heterogeneity including the socio-economic, demographic, lifestyle and ethnic-migration dimension. Spatially, both the total city and neighbourhood perspective are in focus. The paper concludes, among others, that social heterogeneity in its horizontal dimension is being recognised and accepted and that this is reflected by policy development as well. This does not apply in the same manner for increasing social inequalities. The example of Leipzig shows, furthermore, that there is a need for more differentiation in the local discourse with respect to the explicit recognition of horizontal difference, the need to counteract vertical social inequalities and the fact that out of the interaction/intersection of both dimensions, a bundle of new equivocalities and complexities emerge.

Pluralism and Conflict: The Debate about “Russian Values” and Politics of Identity

Abstract This article addresses the issue of the plurality of Russian identities. The role of the “otherness” (as embodied by Catholicism) in Russian identity is addressed. The stereotype idea of the two traditionally opposed identities, those of elite and common people is corrected by suggesting a third Russian identity, shaped by the followers of the Old Belief after the split of the Russian Church. In analyzing this identity, one should consider not only the intertwined political and religious dimensions of the Russian identity but also its historical dimension. The Old Believers, owing to their worldview and way of thought, gave rise to a new anthropological figure which contrasts with the stereotyped image of the Russian grounded in the history of serfdom and rural community. This new type of Russian identity is associated with democratic governance, rigorous way of life, higher rationality, and dynamic and successful economic activity. Nevertheless, the history of the Russian Raskol reveals a latent conflict inherent in the Russian past and present and underlying Russian identities. Unlike the religious wars in Europe, this conflict received no resolution; instead, it has been repressed and therefore keeps latently affecting the Russian present. Present-day Russia should draw inspiration in the religious and political heritage of the Old Believers, if the conflict is to be resolved.

Afinidade, afetividade, organização: processos de mobilização de black blocs

Investigamos neste trabalho os processos de mobilizacao de black blocs para eventos deprotesto, baseados na realizacao de entrevistas semiestruturadas com militantes e observacaoparticipante. Para isso, em primeiro lugar, localizamos os black blocs no campo doautonomismo, chamando atencao para a pluralidade identitaria e cultural autonomista.Em segundo lugar, mapeamos as analises sobre processos de mobilizacao de black blocs,no Brasil e no exterior. Por fim, analisamos o conteudo de nossas entrevistas, amparando-nos, por um lado, na literatura especializada e, por outro, nos temas emergentes dasnarrativas dos entrevistados e na experiencia etnografica. Nossos resultados convergempara a criacao de tres tipos inter-relacionados de mobilizacao de black blocs, orientados(a) pela articulacao de grupos de afinidade; (b) pela organizacao previa e sistematicade blocos; e (c) pela formacao espontânea de blocos a partir do compartilhamento deestados afetivos e da interacao em redes sociais digitais.Palavras-chave: Black blocs; mobilizacao; organizacao.

Plural Identity

Plural identity—the relation of identity between some things xx and some things yy—has been standardly defined in terms of the plural relation one of (or among). This paper challenges that standard view. To that end, it will be argued, first, that the identity relation, singular or plural, can only be defined in a higher‐order language, second, that the standard definition of plural identity in terms of the one of (or among) relation should be regarded instead as providing a criterion of identity for pluralities of some particular kind, and third, that there are pluralities of another kind with which a different criterion of identity is associated. The upshot will be that plural identity as standardly defined cannot be the plural counterpart of singular identity.

SEKOLAH DAN MASYARAKAT BERBASIS MULTIKULTURAL

This study is a Library Research written based on the results of studies of various library materials, both in the form of books, journals, articles and so on related to schools and communities that are collided with multicultural terms. In line with the method, the data collection techniques used in this study are documentary techniques, in the sense that data is collected through documents as referred to as library material. The data collected in this study is then analyzed using content analysis. The results of the discussion are that multicultural-based schools and communities are formal educational institutions and community environments that uphold and recognize the existence of plurality of identities in the community and willing to accept all forms of diversity

The Role of Intercultural Competence and Local Wisdom in Building Intercultural and Inter-religious Tolerance

ABSTRACTThis paper examines the role of intercultural competence and local wisdom to build tolerance. Recent situation shows that the rights of religious and cultural minorities are on the decline. It focuses on the experience and practice of tolerance in kampong Buneng to prevent ethno-religious conflict. This study employs accommodation theory and qualitative approach to investigate a case study, which describes real phenomena. The findings show that convergence strategy is more dominant than divergence strategy and local wisdom found in Buneng is designed to maintain harmony between village members rather than voicing distinction amongst plural identities occupying the same public sphere.

La plage comme espace de l’écriture intime dans La vie pieds nus d’Alan Pauls

The beach motif has been explored many times in literature: from Proust to Camus, it has often embodied a place of interaction between a character’s internalised experience and the reality of the outside world. In this round trip between the intimate and the collective, Alan Pauls uses the beach as a tool for autobiographical writing, thus creating a real “phenomenology” of the beach and revealing in his text a stratified and textured meta-literature, like the grains of sand in which the swimmer’s feet sink. The beach becomes a multidimensional space that allows him to dissect his plural identity and reconnect with the memories of a childhood spent in Argentina in the sixties and seventies. Pauls sets up this spatio-temporality particularly through visual memory and a play on images, whether directly through his writing or by inserting photographs and cinematographic references. Barefoot life is both a dive into the depths of the mind and a serene siesta in the quicksands of intimacy. Pauls takes us on a journey of discovery of his self in a story that takes us like the wave and lets us float in the spume of our own lives.

Collective identity, social adversity and college student sympathy for violent radicalization.

Identity issues have been at the forefront in studies on determinants of youth violent radicalization. Identity uncertainty and identity fusion appear to be associated with quests for meaning, which may find some answers in extremist discourses and radical engagements. This process has been considered to be particularly important for second-generation migrants who have to negotiate multiple identities, sometimes in situations of social adversity. This paper aims to understand the relations between collective identity, social adversity (discrimination and exposure to violence), and sympathy for violent radicalization in College students in Quebec. This mixed-method study consisted of a large online survey conducted at eight colleges in Quebec. Multilevel analysis accounted for the clustered nature of data while generalized additive mixed models were used to study nonlinear relations. Results highlight the complex associations between collective identity and youth sympathy for violent radicalization. They confirm that negative public representations of minority communities may lead to more sympathy for violent radicalization. Although results suggest that strong enough identities can act as protective anchorages for youth, they also indicate that when collective identity becomes too central in personal identity this may accentuate othering processes and legitimize violence toward the out-group. These results have implications for prevention programs. They indicate that improving the public image of minority communities through mainstream media or the social media may increase youth public self-esteem and decrease their sympathy for violent radicalization. They also invite the education field to foster the development of strong plural identities.

Une Quête de Soi au Carrefour des Identités : Fiction et Réalité dans Surtout ne te Retourne pas de Maissa Bey = A Quest for the Self at the Crossroads of Identities : Fiction and Reality in Surtout ne te Retourne pas by Maissa Bey

Surtout ne te retourne pas is the story of a young girl victim of an earthquake and an identity crisis. It is also the story of Amina, the amnesiac who tries to unravel the threads of her past existence through some tragic stories, including that of Dada Aicha, Mourad, Nadia, and Sarah. In this article, we seek to examine Amina at the crossroads of several identities. Would she be Amina, the daughter of a so busy entrepreneur with his status as a future legislator, a submissive mother, or a fundamentalist brother? Would it be Amina who ran a runaway at 15 days to escape her arranged marriage? Would she be Amina the maid's niece? Would she be El Wahida that Dadda Aicha finds annihilated, lying on the road, curled up, frozen, and rigid?. Or is she Amina the daughter of Dounya? In the light of these textual details, we will try to highlight the plurality of identity, which emerge from a fragmentation of the identities of the character in search of the self. The writer traces sketches of the individual and her society. The 2003 earthquake and Amina's amnesia are only a pretext for dealing with the past memory, of the present of an Algeria plagued by big cats, which have submitted the mother of the character, who succeeds finally free herself and to allow her daughter to outwit the patriarchal projects. Thus, to grasp the meaning of the text, the mythanalytic data will make it possible to turn down the meaning. The myth of the end of the world, the myth of creation and the myth of rebirth have given birth to another text in which Amina experiences a symbolic death, which evolves into two rebirths; one with Dadda Aicha, the other with Dounya.

The American Film Musical and the Place(less)ness of Entertainment: Cabaret’s “International Sensation” and American Identity in Crisis

This article looks at cosmopolitanism in the American film musical through the lens of the genre’s self-reflexivity. By incorporating musical numbers into its narrative, the musical mirrors the entertainment industry mise en abyme, and establishes an intrinsic link to America through the act of (cultural) performance. Drawing on Mikhail Bakhtin’s notion of the chronotope and its recent application to the genre of the musical, I read the implicitly spatial backstage/stage duality overlaying narrative and number—the musical’s dual registers—as a means of challenging representations of Americanness, nationhood, and belonging. The incongruities arising from the segmentation into dual registers, realms complying with their own rules, destabilize the narrative structure of the musical and, as such, put the semantic differences between narrative and number into critical focus. A close reading of the 1972 film Cabaret, whose narrative is set in 1931 Berlin, shows that the cosmopolitanism of the American film musical lies in this juxtaposition of non-American and American (at least connotatively) spaces and the self-reflexive interweaving of their associated registers and narrative levels. If metalepsis designates the transgression of (onto)logically separate syntactic units of film, then it also symbolically constitutes a transgression and rejection of national boundaries. In the case of Cabaret, such incongruities and transgressions eventually undermine the notion of a stable American identity, exposing the American Dream as an illusion produced by the inherent heteronormativity of the entertainment industry. The film advocates a cosmopolitan model of cultural hybridity and the plurality of identities by shedding light on the faultlines of nationalist essentialism.

FILM BIOPIK DAN POLITIK IDENTITAS: Kontestasi Keragaman Ideologi dalam Teks Sinema Indonesia Pasca Rezim Soeharto

<p>This article examines the textuality relationship between the historical facts of biography and the narrative structure of films that present figures who during the New Order regime were alienated from Indonesian historiography. Some films such as <em>GIE, Soegija, Sang Kiai, Soekarno, </em>and<em> Jenderal Sudirman</em> were able to deconstruct the meaning of historical films produced by the New Order regime which was dominated by Suharto's image. The emergence of biopic films that narrate characters with plurality of identity are deconstructive characters and reflect the antithesis of filmmakers on national film products in the era of Soeharto regime. In the New Order era, historical epic films were identical to the hegemony of the military struggle which reduced the narrative of civil society, such as <em>kiai</em> and <em>santri</em> and other minority groups. Actually, in the context of historical facts they also had great contribution in the era of nation formation through ethnic nationalism and civic nationalism. The Indonesianism discourse reflected in the hidden meanings of biopic films studied represent the plurality of ideologies and identity political formation in popular culture products.</p>

Formação superior de professores de libras: primeiros desafios ao reconhecimento do sujeito multifacetado

As instituições federais de educação que ofertam cursos superiores para formação docente em Libras devem obediência à Lei no 12.711/12 e ao Decreto no 5.626/05, concernente às políticas de ação afirmativa que contemplam, respectivamente, os grupos de pessoas egressas de escolas públicas e o grupo de pessoas surdas. Considerando que em nossa sociedade contemporânea o sujeito é constituído por múltiplas e fragmentadas identidades, o presente artigo tem o objetivo de investigar a efetivação do direito à prioridade do surdo na formação de professores de Libras a partir de uma análise ampliada do sujeito multifacetado. Os resultados evidenciaram menor adesão dessas instituições ao cumprimento da prioridade no acesso aos surdos, bem como o desafio por parte de algumas em lidar com o sujeito pós-moderno constituído por diferentes identidades.

Global Cities and Cultural Diversity Governance: Comparing Doha and Singapore

The rise of global cities has raised multiple questions regarding the governance of diversity. While they are often portrayed as spaces of ungovernable global flows and as catalysts of the disappearance of national identities, this paper aims to analyse these cities’ actions and strategies to govern their cultural diversity and defend a renewed conception of the national. I combine an analysis of outward-looking strategies that promote their cultural diversity on the global cultural field, and of inward-looking strategies that attempt to project their plural identity in the urban space. I compare two cities, Doha and Singapore, which have emerged as major centres of the global economy and offer a perspective that differs from the large Western cities where the notion of global city was initially coined. The affirmation of Doha and Singapore as global cities does not go along with a process of weakening of the nation-state, but on the contrary takes part in a logic of nation building and nation branding. The paper analyses how local actors negotiate this dialectic between the global and the national. Firstly, I show that they have put transnational regional networks and identities at the centre of the promotion of these cities as cultural hub. Secondly, I show that the recognition of these cities’ diverse heritage and its display in the urban landscape, go in parallel with an increasing spatial exclusion of recent migrants.

The Fishing Line: A History of the Grand Rapids & Indiana Railroad by Graydon M. Meints

142 The Michigan Historical Review diverse Midwest, complete with a “multitude of social Midwests” and a plurality of Midwestern identities (p. 331). That the most frequently mentioned Midwestern figures across the volume (Garrison Keillor, Abraham Lincoln, and Meredith Willson each appear in four chapters, and Sinclair Lewis in five chapters) are white men, however, indicates that much work remains to ensure that the “new” Midwestern history critically attends to race, ethnicity, class, gender, and sexuality. While the introduction offers an excellent overview of the essays, each section would benefit from a brief introduction that more fully explains the connections among its chapters, and the relevance of the section’s theme for rethinking the field. An epilogue outlining next steps would provide greater cohesiveness and rally the reader to invest further in critical midwestern studies. Scholars of Michigan history will find the volume valuable for its consideration of the state’s relationship to the region. Part of the challenge of re-energizing Midwestern historiography, the editors note, is a lack of academic infrastructure that is necessary for legitimizing and sustaining research on the region. Finding a New Midwestern History contributes to a growing groundswell of scholarship that is addressing this deficit and catalyzing the field’s revitalization. Collectively, the book’s contributors illuminate the richness and complexity of the field, and they articulate why the Midwest deserves consideration anew in both scholarly research and the popular imagination. Elizabeth Grennan Browning Indiana University, Bloomington Graydon M. Meints. The Fishing Line: A History of the Grand Rapids & Indiana Railroad. East Lansing: Michigan State University Press, 2018. Pp. 267. Appendices. Bibliography. Illustrations. Index. Notes. Paper: $39.95. Chronicled in this company history is the roughly seven-decade saga of the Grand Rapids & Indiana Railroad (GR&I). In 1920, when the Pennsylvania Railroad (PRR) folded this Grand Rapids-based company into its corporate structure, it was larger than the typical shortline, yet smaller than the average Class I road. The GR&I spanned the approximately 460 miles between Fort Wayne, Indiana, and Mackinaw City, Michigan, and the 40 miles between Grand Rapids and Muskegon. It also operated a modest network of branch lines. The early history of the CR&I was one of fits and starts. It struggled to obtain funding to become more than a paper project. Although Book Reviews 143 incorporated in 1854, the company did not start right-of-way grading until 1865. Yet its local backers remained optimistic, spurred on by a substantial land grant in 1864 from the State of Michigan and financial aid from private investors and several projected on-line communities. In the immediate post-Civil War period, individuals associated with the PRR saved the gestating railroad. It was through their Continental Improvement Company (CIC) that much of the GR&I became reality and a profitable arrangement for the construction firm happened. For years, the GR&I service territory featured two distinct parts. South of Grand Rapids, the countryside was well settled with an assortment of towns and villages, but north of Grand Rapids, the railroad initially sliced through a densely forested region. Throughout much of the remainder of the nineteenth century, the railroad facilitated the lumber industry and fostered town creation. But as timber resources declined, the GR&I promoted agriculture and emphasized summer tourism, becoming a sparkplug for summer resorts in the greater Traverse City region. Its passenger business became more important than for most Michigan carriers. Freight traffic was not insignificant; coal and merchandise became common inbound commodities. Although the GR&I went through the bankruptcy wringer more than once, it had become a financially stable property by the early twentieth century. After World War I, the Pennsylvania, which for some time had controlled the road, made additional betterments and adjustments. Locomotives, for example, became more powerful. Yet as modal competition increased, passenger traffic declined, and branches were paired down or scrapped. Much later, with the creation of Penn Central (PRR and New York Central), which in 1976 morphed into the quasipublic Conrail, further changes occurred, including abandonment of sections of the historic mainline. Graydon Meints has fashioned a solid corporate history. In The Fishing Line, he has focused heavily on finance, politics, and economic impact. Little is said about technology, social history, and labor relations. A portion of the...

Nosotros, los pueblos: liderazgo populista, neoliberalismo y descolonización.

This article engages with the limits of Ernesto Laclau's theory of populism, focusing on the logic of popular identification. The central argument is that the Laclauian framework is incapable of accounting for recent forms of populism that articulate a decolonial mode of identification. More specifically, the article shows that for Laclau, leadership and exclusion are necessary components of popular identification, in which the identity of ‘the people' depends on the prior symbolic articulation of both an enemy and a leader. Although this theory of populism is well-positioned to explain how populist leadership functioned in several mid-century Latin American varieties of populism, it founders when faced with more recent forms of populist identification. Careful analysis of contemporary Ecuadorian and Bolivian populisms shows that these implicitly reject the Laclauian model of identification, articulating instead a decolonial model that advocates the plurality of identities and mobilises rich national histories of anti-colonial resistance.

RELIGION IN DEBATES ABOUT THE EUROPEAN IDENTITY

A short reflection on the books and publications in which I have already written about religious identities in Europe is presented in the introduction. A situation with religious identities varies from one society to another, from one continent to the other. There are three types of religious identity that dominate in Europe (church, churchless and “distanced“). Have religious identities or their “folklore” aspect become stronger in Bosnia and Herzegovina since the 1990s? Then I come back to the very term and type of identity (acquired, chosen etc.) and their basic sociological characteristics. The importance of self-identification and others’ perception of our identity is discussed. Considering the multiplicity of human identities, there will be elaboration of the place of religion among multiple identities. In what social conditions does religious identity gain significance? What is the correlation between religious identity and family, national and professional identities? What happens if the religious identity is rejected? There will be some elaboration also of the place and the role of religious symbols in identities. What kind of social "game" can these symbols play? The examples of conflicts over religious symbols are provided. In particular, migrations and the religious identity of Europe will be discussed. Migrations lead to establishing more regular contacts between different religious identities. Who does not understand whom: is it that the domicile population does not understand migrants or vice versa? Is the migrants' arrival experienced more as an encounter of different religious cultures than as an encounter of different religious identities? Is the relation of those with the Christian and those with the Muslim identity in fact the central issue in all this matter? Approaching migrants as a "threat" to the "Christian European identity". Who is bothered by the plurality of religious identities in Europe? Above all, conservative consciousness, then right-wing politics growing stronger in Europe and inciting hatred towards the non-Christian, especially towards the Muslim identity. The inability of the left-wing to develop a different, more tolerant model towards migrants. Does this mean that the position of the minority in Europe will become more difficult? Something about the sacrilege and the ways in which it is demonstrated in Europe and in our region. The religious identity in the creeps of criticism and art. How far does the freedom of artistic provocations go? The conclusion will be about whether religious identities lead to their separation from others. How to talk about religious identity of "the other" from the standpoint of a personal worldview and religious identity in a society with multiple religious identities? Are we confident that identity problems will not cause further conflicts and instability in European societies?

Challenging Binaries to Promote Women's Equality

In this issue we are calling for a new interpretive framework that recognises the multiple genealogies that have contributed to binary constructs of the Western/secular versus the authentic/religious; takes into account the different power positionalities of those engaging in global and national struggles temporally and spatially; challenges the static binarism of religious versus secular that obfuscates the plurality of framings and identities around which women and men mobilise for social justice and does not shy away from the question of accountability for equality outcomes.

Sense of community among Muslims in the Brazil–Paraguay border: narratives of belonging and generational differences

ABSTRACTThe so-called ‘Triple Frontier’—the border between Paraguay, Brazil, and Argentina—is the ‘host society’ of an important Muslim community, composed mainly of Lebanese immigrants and their descendants born in Brazil and Paraguay. In less than two decades, Shi’i and Sunni Arab Muslims created mosques, religious centres, a cemetery, and three schools. Mosques, schools, and religious centres are spaces for the production of a sense of community. The institutional discourse of these entities emphasises the connection between religion and community origin, considering Islam as part of ‘Arab culture’. Taking generational differences into account, this article aims to analyse the narratives of plural identity expressed in the meanings attributed to the immigrants’ self-identification as Muslims. Based on fieldwork in the South American border area, this work aims to shed light on the way in which immigrants and their descendants reinterpret their religious belonging, informed by the new experience of living in multi-religious societies.

A Pluralistic Approach to Organizing Migrant Domestic Workers: The Case of the Zimbabwe- South Africa Global Care Chain

Migrant domestic workers are among some of the most vulnerable workers across the world, because of their position as invisible workers and their precarious status as migrants. This article situates migrant domestic workers in the Zimbabwe-South Africa corridor within the global care chain literature. It recognizes the centrality of worker organization to any efforts to address their situation. Drawing on the experience of worker organizations in South Africa, it argues for a pluralistic approach to worker organizing. This calls for the recognition of plural actors, policy domains, normative regimes, and narratives that shape the global care chain, and the leveraging of worker’s plural identities.