
Secularism, Assimilation and the Crisis of Multiculturalism
French Modernist Legacies
Yolande Jansen(Author)
Amsterdam University Press
Will be published approx. on 14. November 2013
Book
Paperback/Softback
344 pages
978-90-8964-596-8 (ISBN)
Description
This remarkable study develops a theoretical critique of contemporary discourses on secularism and assimilation, arguing that the perspective of assimilating distinct religious minorities by incorporating them into a secular and supposedly neutral public sphere may be self-subverting. To flesh out this insight, Jansen draws on the paradoxes of assimilation as experienced by the French Jews in the late 19th century through a contextualised reading of Proust's In Search of Lost Time. She proposes a dynamic, critical multiculturalism as an alternative to discourses focusing on secularism, assimilation and integration.
Reviews / Votes
"Jansen's book shows how even the most sophisticated academic views defending secularism and assimilation remain rooted in unexamined 'modernist dichotomies' inherited from French (and to some extent, European) modernism. " - Rainer Bauboeck, European University Institute"For anyone who seeks to understand the roots of the "deepening crisis of multiculturalism" in Europe, Yolande Jansen's book is required reading. Jansen's brilliant and insightful analysis draws on a variety of fields and lucidly shows how the crisis is a crisis in modernity. Subtly weaving Proust into the argument, she brings a dry subject to life." -- Brian Klug, University of Oxford
"This book offers a sharp analysis supported by a surprising array of materials. ... In this way, the author's aim of philosophising in the manner of 'critical activity' rather than composing an ideal theory is successfully achieved." - Carolina Ivanescu, Erasmus University Rotterdam
"Highly accessible and up-to-date, Jansen's ambitious and brave analysis provides a very welcome and refreshing examination of issues regarding secularism, assimilation and the crisis of multiculturalism in France. ... This work will definitely appeal to scholars, for whom the approach taken by Jansen may give fresh input in this field, something that is sorely needed." -- Rim-Sarah Alouane, University Tolouse 1-Capitole
More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
Oxford
Netherlands
Target group
Professional and scholarly
US School Grade: College Graduate Student
Product notice
Paperback (trade)
Unsewn / adhesive bound
Dimensions
Height: 231 mm
Width: 155 mm
Thickness: 23 mm
Weight
476 gr
ISBN-13
978-90-8964-596-8 (9789089645968)
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Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions

E-Book
10/2025
Routledge
€61.99
Available for download

E-Book
10/2025
Routledge
€61.99
Available for download

E-Book
11/2013
Amsterdam University Press
€93.95
Available for download
Persons
Yolande Jansen is Socrates professor of humanism in relation to religion and secularity at the VU University Amsterdam and a senior researcher at the Amsterdam Center for Globalisation Studies, University of Amsterdam.
Content
1 The crisis of multiculturalism, new assimilationism and secularism 2 Assimilation in the French sociology of incorporation from a multicultural perspective 3 The new liberal sociology of assimilation and its transnationalist alternatives 4 Alfred Bloch's personal integration test at the threshold of the protagonist's family's home 5 Stuck in a revolving door. Cultural memory, assimilation and secularization 6 Elements for a critique of the laicite-religion framework 7 Secularism, sociology, security 8 The highly precarious structure of assimilation: modernist philosophical schemes, memory and the Proustian narrative