Anti‐Essentialism, Multiculturalism, and the ‘Recognition’ Of Religious Groups

Abstract

Essentialist and anti‐essentialist views of multicultural society are discussed, using data from the Fourth National Survey of Ethnic Minorities in Britain, which was undertaken in 1994. One of the survey findings was that there is much empirical support for those theorists who have emphasized the fluid and hybrid nature of contemporary post‐immigration ethnicities in Britain. It is argued that the political challenge is to reach for a multicultural Britishness that is happy with this hybridity, but also has space for religious identities, which have been largely neglected by theorists. The last part of the chapter discusses the importance of recognizing religious communities further.