Recasting citizenship: The politics of multiculturalism policy in Canada.

摘要

The 'People' or 'Canadians' are the outcome of a number of ongoing processes to delineate the boundaries of the national community. These issues of inclusion/exclusion underwrite the deployment of citizenship claims within the nation-state. My point of departure for this work is to consider how one state practice, multiculturalism policy, is implicated in the construction of these boundaries.;Through an examination of public and official discourse this analysis of multiculturalism is structured by the question 'why did multiculturalism policy become the site of a contentious debate both within state and society'. The contextualizes multiculturalism policy within shifts in understanding about citizenship and representation. This contextualization is informed by a feminist approach to policy studies.;The study traces the roots of the policy's underlying rationale and charts the course of its subsequent development as well as some of its gender implications. It concludes that the controversy behind multiculturalism was linked to the fact that it made statements about the nature of Canadian identity and the content of Canadian citizenship. A multicultural ideal undercuts cultural exclusivity by emphasizing shared membership in a civic community. In stressing 'difference' it also challenges more common unitary norms of citizenship by institutionalizing elements of group difference.