Review Debate: We need human rights not nationalism 'lite'

Mike O'Donnell (1)

1 UOW - University of Westminster [London]

The article explores the relationship of multiculturalism to social solidarity. The multicultural nature of Britain is accepted as a welcome reality but certain problems in relation to the development of multiculturalism in Britain are acknowledged. Various approaches to buttress or replace multiculturalism are reviewed. These are: a strengthened and/or reconstituted nationalism (`Britishness'); human rights; and social equality. The issue of citizenship recurs throughout. It is argued that a combined emphasis on human rights and greater social equality offer a better basis than nationalism for strengthening solidarity in Britain, especially in the longer term. Sociological theory offers a fruitful if strangely neglected starting point for understanding social solidarity. I draw critically on Durkheim and Marx to obtain some objective perspective on this controversial matter.

Mots clés: Britain; citizenship; equality; integration; multiculturalism; social solidarity

Mike O'Donnell. Review Debate: We need human rights not nationalism 'lite'. Ethnicities, 2007, 7 (2), pp.248-269. ⟨10.1177/1468796807076849⟩. ⟨hal-00571878⟩