Abstract
This paper grapples with an unresolved tension – twenty-first century Britain is indelibly multicultural and yet diversity is increasingly depicted as a threat to social cohesion. A society characterised by superdiverse cities where some suggest that ‘multiculturalism has failed’. On the basis of an analysis of three dominant theoretical and ideological discourses – community cohesion, multiculturalism and interculturalism – it will be argued that there is an urgent need to forge a new understanding of diversity that can counter the zombie discourse that characterises current debates about diversity in Britain. Difference will be framed as a potential source of mutual liberation, not a problem seeking a solution. It will be argued that a critical engagement with political theology can help us to fashion a new discourse of diversity that is characterised by a hermeneutics of liberative difference, which can help to defeat the zombies sucking the life out of diverse Britain.
Notes
1. Throughout the terms ‘race’ and ‘racial’ are placed in inverted commas to signify that ‘race’ is a social construction rather than a valid biological category.
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3. Web sites http://www.theguardian.com/world/2005/sep/19/race.socialexclusion and http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1498695/Race-chief-criticised-for-ghetto-warning.html accessed 4 December 2015.
4. Cameron, David (5 February 2011, Munich), Web site https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/pms-speech-at-munich-security-conference accessed 22 July 2015. See too http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/david-cameron/8305346/Muslims-must-embrace-our-British-values-David-Cameron-says.html James Kirkup, ‘The Telegraph’, ‘Muslims must embrace our British Values, David Cameron says’, 5 February 2011, accessed 22 July 2015.
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