Patchwork multiculturalism

In this paper I advance a discursive account of multiculturalism: patchwork multiculturalism. By drawing upon Shaftesbury’s ideas of amicable collisions and sensus communis, I claim that the construction of small-scale consultative groups favours the materialisation of a sense of common weal across participants with the same entitlement to have say. For multiculturalism, this means to ensure that all citizens have this same entitlement. It also means to grant that much of decision-making power is left at the local level. In order for this being possible, I advance two normative claims. First, I consider persons as citizens and as members of different interaction communities simultaneously, whose decision-making power must be guaranteed. Second, I reconcile the sphere of recognition and toleration in the idea of ‘recognition to toleration’. Recognition encompasses all those policies that put the individual in the position to express his or her discursive power, while toleration is a collectively (and temporary) constructed feeling among participants in a discussion where, thanks to recognition policies, their equal status is formally protected.