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CONFLICT AND DIVERSITY: CANADA / QUÉBEC 435

appeared in the eighteenth century in order to the effervescence in Québec’s intellectual
promote the institutionalization of the nation and academic milieu on the question of
and the family. For the author, such norma- modalities for the integration of immigrant
tive management will lead, notably, to the populations and their descendants into the
construction of a standardized sexuality, ‘nation’.
what we refer to today as the heteronorma- Ethnic relations – formative of material
tive system. The ‘management of diversity’ and symbolic boundaries between groups – do
evoked here is also linked to the normative shape the manner of thinking about diversity
aims of a standardized nation. within the geo-juridical borders of Canada.
Since the 1990s, we have observed that Hence, one can also find there explanations
various institutional bodies in Canada and in for why the term ‘diversity’ has different
Québec choose to use the term diversity meanings or semantics in Canada and Québec.
where, previously, they would have spoken The institutional usage of this term in
of multiculturalism in Canada and inter- Québec now dates to the mid-1990s and on a
culturalism in Québec. number of occasions, has presented further
The use of the concept of diversity within opportunities for affirming the national iden-
these two socio-political entities is worth tity of French Canadians. We can see this by
noting since, through this notion, the meas- analyzing cultural policies in order to exam-
ures, policies and programs thus put in place ine normative pluralism. Such an approach
create and project a national identity; that is has rarely been used to date to study ethnic
to say, they create a social institutional sub- relations (Pietrantonio, 2002). Analysis of
ject with parameters of identity that are mat- the relationship of cultural policies to norma-
ters of debate. We know that on this subject tive pluralism deserves attention since these
Québec proclaims its distinctiveness from policies harbour social, political and cultural
Canada. To be precise, the debates in Québec elements considered to be the specificities of
about institutional recognition of the popula- a nation (Handler, 1988). While the typical
tion’s ethnic diversity (or normative plural- analyses of normative pluralism have often
ism) essentially began in the 1980s. For focused on policies and programs related to
reasons related to the history of ethnic rela- official multiculturalism, ethnic boundaries
tions in the country and linked to the Québec are discernible within all institutional dis-
nation’s demands for special status, in courses on culture. Furthermore, we believe
Québec, the term multiculturalism was that this is ideal material for a discursive
rejected first in favour of the idea of ‘cultural analysis of ethnic relations, one which also
convergence’ – of the migrant population provides the opportunity for a fruitful associ-
towards the host society (1978) – and later to ation between the sociology of ethnic
favour interculturalism (1986). Many ‘inter- relations and the sociology of culture.
cultural policies’ were then introduced, In the field of cultural policies, since the
particularly in the field of education. They end of the 1990s uses of the concept of diver-
had the same objectives as the Canadian sity have been developed that encourage us to
multiculturalism policy (Juteau et al., 1998) identify various types of normative plural-
except in relation to language. (Other sec- ism. There has, in fact, been a long standing
tions of this chapter refer to the same distinc- opposition between the Canadian model and
tion.) The debate between multiculturalism the French republican model, or even the
and interculturalism culminated in Québec, German one. Indeed, a fresh look at norma-
5
in December 1990, with the adoption of a tive pluralism appears even more important
Québec policy on immigration and integra- as an international and institutional (thus,
tion. (See the sections by Couton and Denis normative) discourse is developing about cul-
in this chapter.) There is an extensive litera- ture and diversity, within which both Canada
ture on this debate which bears witness to and Québec are playing a leading role.