Communication and Europe: From Multiculturalism to Cultural Cohabitation

Abstract

The debate over multiculturalism that began twenty years ago in the United States has reached Europe, but with the risk of misinterpretation. For in effect, the conditions in which it has been discussed in North America do not have a lot to do with the way in which it should be posed here in Europe. Despite appearances, the arguments advanced across the Atlantic are scarcely useful for thinking through the same problem in Europe. Why? Because multiculturalism in the United States is made within a national community, defined with its frontiers, history, and sovereignty. There the question is: taking into account the existence of the United States, how should relations between cultures be organized? The European problem is the inverse: not how to preserve the diversity of cultures within a community, but first how to construct this community, this framework for them. The word “community” (correctly chosen since 1957) is in reality ahead of actual history. It expresses a voluntarism, a project, and designates more an intention than a reality. The prior problem is to manage to form, mark out, and identify this community—and make it live. The question of how identities cohabit inside this community does not come first, even if the two are linked.