Barack Obama as the post-racial candidate for a post-racial America: perspectives from Asian America and Hawai‘i

ABSTRACT

Okamura reviews the 2008 US presidential campaign and the election of Barack Obama as a ‘post-racial candidate’ in terms of two different meanings of ‘post-racialism’, namely, colour blindness and multiculturalism. He also discusses his campaign and election from the perspective of Asian America and Hawai'i given that Obama has been claimed as ‘the first Asian American president’ and as a ‘local’ person from Hawai‘i where he was born and spent most of his youth. In both cases, Obama has been accorded these racialized identities primarily because of particular cultural values he espouses and cultural practices he engages in that facilitate his seeming transcendence of racial boundaries and categories generally demarcated by phenotype and ancestry. Okamura contends that proclaiming Obama as an honorary Asian American and as a local from Hawai‘i inadvertently lends support to the post-racial America thesis and its false assertion of the declining significance of race: first, by reinforcing the ‘model minority’ stereotype of Asian Americans and, second, by affirming the widespread view of Hawai‘i as a model of multiculturalism.     

‘How Do You Think I Feel? It's My Country’: Belonging,Entitlement and the Politics of Immigration

Current debates around immigration are informed by hierarchies of belonging, with some groups seen to belong more, and therefore deserve more, than others. This link between belonging and entitlement has been predominantly analysed in relation to struggles over access to key material benefits, such as jobs, housing, healthcare and so on. This paper will argue that these struggles also point to the continuing relevance of nationhood to many people's sense of self, community and place and the value that comes from being positioned, and recognised, as part of a group that lies at the heart of national life and culture. In other words, the ‘politics of immigration’ is about the anxieties and concerns of those who no longer feel ‘at home’ in what they consider to be ‘their’ country.     

文化多元主义全球化场景下的中国法学——《中国法学向何处去》引发的思考

邓正来在<中国法学向何处去>一文中指出,目前中国法学的理论模式受着现代化范式的影响和支配,而这根源于产生这种支配性影响的"结构性基础"的存在."全球化场景",作为这种结构性基础之一,同样在支配着我们的法学研究.基于邓正来主张的对"主体性中国"的诉求,选择了罗兰·罗伯森所阐述的文化多元主义作为一种"自我的"全球化分析框架.在这一框架下对全球化的建构性解释将利于保持中国法学研究的自主性.在对这一框架进行分析、阐述的基础上,将对这一框架下中国法学研究如何保持自主性做一尝试性描述.     

‘This is not a Favela’: Rio de Janeiro's Urban Quilombo Sacopã and the Limits of Multiculturalism

Under Brazil's 1988 Constitution, quilombo communities have the right to the titles of the lands they occupy. This paper assesses quilombo titles' transformative potential through the experiences of Rio de Janeiro's urban quilombo Sacopã, an ethnic Afro‐descendant community once perceived as a favela. Unlike its neighbours, the community managed to resist the widespread favela removals of the 1970s. Based on an ethnographic approach during fieldwork conducted between December 2013 and January 2014, the article asks: how did Sacopã manage to remain, whilst its surrounding favelas were forcefully removed? Who counts as ethnic? What does this imply for Brazil's afro‐descendant majority?     

From Multiculturalism to Cultural Voluntarism: A Family‐based Approach

In the context of the current debate on multiculturalism, this article draws on three models of state policies towards families to propose a reframing of multiculturalist policies. They are the ‘authorisation’ model, wherein the state authorises families to define and enforce family obligations as law; the ‘delegation’ model, wherein the state prescribes the norms families are to follow and delegates to families the role of enforcing them; and the ‘purposive abstention’ model, wherein the state uses the voluntary performance family norms as a tool of policy, giving them limited legal recognition within the continued application of the general law. The article considers how these models might guide policy towards communities, which can be seen, substantially, as collections of families. It favours the ‘purposive abstention’ model, which, in the context of cultural groups, could be termed ‘cultural voluntarism’.     

构建多元文化理念下的女子体育课程

文化的核心是价值观的问题.吸纳文化多元的理念,对传统与现代女子体育课程价值取向的重新审视,从文化层面剖析女子体育课程发展的路径,形成女子体育课程文化建设的基本思路,尝试对课程深层结构的理性思考均具有重要的现实意义.     

Idealism,realism, and immigration: David Miller’s Strangers in Our Midst

David Miller’s Strangers in Our Midst is an important contribution to the debate among political philosophers about how liberal democratic states should deal with the issue of migration. But it is also a thoughtful statement concerning how best to do political philosophy and, as such, contributes also to the growing debate within Anglo-American political theory about the relative merits of ‘ideal’ versus ‘non-ideal’ normative theorising. Miller’s argument in the book builds on his earlier published work in suggesting that political philosophy should be ‘for Earthlings’: it should not be understood as a process of ideal theorising which ignores political reality. He argues that normative theorists should seek to resolve complex political problems by taking seriously the political context that makes these problems complex, rather than putting aside that context in the interests of deriving first principles. This is a controversial approach, which requires political philosophers to take more seriously than they often do the expressed concerns of citizens living in democratic states and the practical problems associated with applying normative principles in ways which actually help address the issue at hand. This piece discusses some of these themes, and the issue of migration more generally, in order to help frame the debate which follows.     

Dos modelos frente a la diversidad cultural: igualitarismo formal y ciudadanía diferenciada

Contemporary globalized societies are culturally and religiously plural. Nation states apply different juridical regulation vis-a-vis diversity. Segregation and total assimilation of minority groups are not compatible with international standards of human rights. Among the regulations that are compatible with those standards there are two categories. Firstly, the formal egalitarian approach, related to the liberal-republican tradition, which is based on a formal consideration of equality and disregards identity differences. Secondly, theoretical proposals which promote the recognition of rights based on cultural and religious identities. These proposals, however, require a more flexible consideration of the equality principle.     

浅析加拿大多元文化政策的成因及其族裔问题

从建国之初的一元文化主义到20世纪中期的二元文化主义与多元文化主义，加拿大的民族文化政策经历了戏剧性的变化，这既有其历史成因，也有其现实环境。加拿大多元文化政策在协调与解决多民族国家共存的族裔矛盾、保持民族文化多样性问题上具有相当大的示范作用。但是，制定政策的理想性与政策执行的现实性之间的矛盾、政策存在的短暂历史空间以及移民源国复杂而又多样的文化差异性，注定了其在实施过程中步履维艰。因而，了解与分析加拿大多元文化政策所给予的训示具有现实意义。     

Between Two Stools? The Government's ‘Preventing Violent Extremism’ Agenda

The 7/7 London suicide bombings of July 2005 and numerous subsequent Islamist terror plots have highlighted the reality of an 'internal' threat to Britain. One governmental response has been the 'Preventing Violent Extremism' (PVE) programme. Whilst the educational aspect of its focus on Muslim young people is to be welcomed, there are serious concerns as to whether PVE policy, as currently designed, is falling between two stools. To date, the programme focuses exclusively on Muslim communities in flat contradiction to the integration policy priority of community cohesion, so risking further defensiveness from Muslim communities and resentment from white working class communities. Whilst ignoring the right-wing extremism growing in some of those white communities, PVE work with young people is actually failing to engage openly and robustly with the real political issues driving Muslim anger and minority extremist support. The confidence, understanding and skills of educational practitioners are vital here.