Multiculturalism and the History of Canadian Diversity

by Richard J.F. Day

Is Canada a country of equal and peacefully coexisting identities, working towards what Charles Taylor has called a 'post-industrial Sittlichkeit'? In this analysis of the history of Canadian diversity, Richard Day argues that no degree or style of state intervention can ever bring an end to tensions related to ethnocultural relations of power. Using Foucault's method of genealogical analysis and a theory of the state form derived from the works of Deleuze and Guattari, Day creates a framework for his exploration of the construction of human difference and its management over the years. He argues that Canada's multicultural policies are propelled by a fantasy of unity based on the nation-state model. Our legislation, policies, and practices do not move us towards equality and reciprocity, he reveals, because they are rooted in a European drive to manage and control diversity. Day challenges the notion that Canadian multiculturalism represents either progress beyond a history of assimilation and genocide or a betrayal of that very history that supports the dominance of Anglo-Canadians. Only when English Canada is able to abandon its fantasy of unity, Day concludes, can the radical potential of multiculturalism politics be realized.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0802080758
• ISBN13: 9780802080752
• Release Date: April 2000
• Publisher: University of Toronto Press
• Length: 288 Pages
• Weight: 0.95 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 6.1" x 9.0"
• Grade Range: Postsecondary and higher

Customer Reviews

Interesting Genealogy of Multiculturalism

Richard Day has written on excellent book from a poststructuralist perspective on the Canadian state's discourse of multiculturalism and the ways in which its rise in postmodern society results in both the shift away from the NATION-state (singular) to the MULTINATION-state (plural) and how that tension tends to also call the legitimacy of the state into question on multiple fronts even while it temporarily strengthens it to adapt to the "problem" of diversity. This book will be of interest to those interested in theories of multiculturalism, alternative histories of Canada and the applied philosophy of Nietzche, Foucault and Deleuze and Guattari.