Interculturalism: A new diversity ideology with interrelated components of dialogue,unity, and identity flexibility |
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Authors: | Maykel Verkuyten Kumar Yogeeswaran Kieran Mepham Stefanie Sprong |
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Affiliation: | 1. Utrecht University, Utrecht, The Netherlands;2. University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand;3. ETH Zürich, Zürich, Switzerland;4. Trinity College Dublin, Dublin, Ireland |
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Abstract: | Increased cultural diversity has led to considerable debate on how to best promote intergroup harmony within pluralistic nations. In the current research, we consider the nature of interculturalism, a new diversity ideology extensively discussed by political philosophers and policy-makers in Europe and beyond. Interculturalism consists of three interrelated components of dialogue, unity, and identity flexibility. Using data (N = 2,364) from three national surveys in two ethnically diverse nations (Netherlands and USA), we test a new measure of interculturalism and establish its independence from multiculturalism and assimilation. We then demonstrate that interculturalism predicts positive intergroup outcomes, over and above multiculturalism, and is in a theoretically meaningful way related to various criterion measures. Collectively, these studies establish the uniqueness of interculturalism from multiculturalism and demonstrate its promise for improving intergroup relations in culturally diverse nations. |
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Keywords: | diversity interculturalism intergroup relations multiculturalism |
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