One of the greatest challenges for art and culture, sounded by
intellectuals and also by funding bodies, is to represent diversity. But
what precisely does this term mean and why does it so often placate
rather than produce what it names? Professor Steven Vertovec, Director
of the Max-Planck-Institute for the Study of Religious and Ethnic
Diversity (Göttingen, Germany) puts forward the notion of
"super-diversity," noting "the need to re-evaluate conceptions and
policy measures surrounding diversity by way of moving beyond an
ethno-focal understanding and adopting a multidimensional approach."
Developing this idea further, while aiming to question and complicate
the focus on immigration in the current debate, the prolific and
provocative scholar and activist Tariq Ramadan weighs in on the subject.
In the resulting essay, translated into Dutch and Arabic, Professor
Ramadan sets out an argument that foregrounds universalism as a
necessary, if devalued, horizon and offers a critique of the uses and
limits of dialogue and discourse within the day-to-day practice of
super-diversity.
On Super-Diversity constitutes the second book of the Reflections
series, co-published with Witte de With. Each edition, consisting of a
specially commissioned essay, engages a leading thinker in reconsidering
one key question that defines contemporary culture.
