Current Norwegian curricular guidelines oblige schools to educate citizens with a critical perspective on society. From a discourse theoretical perspective, this obligation implies that various school subjects, and in particular social studies, offer discourses on social issues that allow for different points of view and critical evaluation.…

There is a claim currently circulating the European Union (EU), both cynical and misleading: "multiculturalism is dead in Europe". No wonder, as the conglomerate of nation-states/EU has silently handed over one of its most important debates--that of European identity--to the left and right wing parties, recently followed by several…

The bloody First and Second World Wars awakened the dream of a cross-border peaceful territory supported by the Christian community principles of the clerics founding the first universities in the Middle Ages. Since the 1950s the European Union has been built up from six member states to reach twenty-seven, with more associate members. But…

The article is concerned with issues of national identity in a multicultural society (Sweden) and the role of citizenship education in creating a national identity. After having witnessed the terrorist attack and the traumas from Oslo and Utøya (22 July 2011), and the suicide bombing in Stockholm on 11 December 2010, certain words, such as…

In the almost two decades that have passed since the Swedish parliament declared that Sweden is a multicultural society, debates about immigrants, about multiculturalism and about different ways of being a citizen have raged. So far there has been no stepping away from the declaration. In the rhetorical arena multiculturalism is still a word with…

Malta is a small island at the periphery of Europe, often referred to as a bridge connecting Africa with the European continent. Discourse about multiculturalism opens a Pandora's box, albeit the very recently elected Labour Party won the election on the call of Malta Taghna Lkoll (Malta belongs to all of us). This was the first time that…

This article is in three parts. In part one, the author begins by examining the onset of austerity/immiseration capitalism in the United Kingdom. Austerity/immiseration capitalism has witnessed the decline of state multiculturalism and increasing attempts to deflect attention away from the failures of capitalism by playing the "race…

As illustrated in this article, there are no such things as singular issues in politics. Be that as it may, no one will remember German Chancellor Angela Merkel's remarks on immigration in October 2010 as being about anything other than immigration. Her remarks ought to be remembered, however, more for what she didn't say than for what…

Muslim education is not incommensurate with multiculturalism and, hence, does not pose a threat to multiculturalism at all. If Muslim education were to be perceived as a risk to multiculturalism then either such a form of education is not conceived appropriately or the claims of multiculturalism are false. Instead, the authors argue that Muslim…

The literature on migration has largely covered concepts of diaspora, such as transnationalism, immigration and religious-ethnic minorities. These concepts that concern related factors of social transformation, mainly with reference to Islam in Europe, have been investigated with respect to religion. Major research questions include whether, and…

For the past six decades, conservative foundations in the United States have targeted their funding on a transformation of the public's understanding of markets, culture , and the undergraduate course of study. These foundations, and their sponsored researchers, have specifically challenged the place of diversity and intercultural competence…

This article sketches a post-Occidental interpretation of the historical/conceptual relationships between modern western education and European civilizational identity formation. Modern western education will be interpreted as a modern/colonial institution that emerged along with the sixteenth-century responses to the questions provoked by the…

Around thirty per cent of all schools in England have a religious character. The author argues that the current "faith schools debate" is more about the nature of its "plural society" than about the place of such schools within the state-maintained sector. He suggests that to assume we are, in fact, living within a determinedly plural society is…

This article examines what an ethic of care could offer to discussions about Europe's increasing cultural diversity by analyzing the important "White Paper on Intercultural Dialogue" published by the Council of Europe in 2008. The authors consider the White Paper from the perspective of the political ethic of care and thus examine its adequacy in…

The Council of Europe's 2008 "White Paper on Intercultural Dialogue" signalled--with a measure of deep concern--the limits of multiculturalism and its attendant problems of identity politics, communal segregation, and the undermining of rights and freedoms in culturally closed communities. The White Paper proposed the replacement of the policy of…