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450 THE ISA HANDBOOK IN CONTEMPORARY SOCIOLOGY

an equal political plane with the English political economy tradition which has
language, is, on a sociological plane, in a informed much of the sociological analysis,
minority situation (even in Québec). including in ethnic relations (see Clement
and Vosko, 2003, as a recent example of this
tradition). The current quest for greater recog-
nition of diversity now reaches beyond the
CONCLUDING COMMENTS institutional policy of multiculturalism of
1971 although the latter remains an important
This chapter began with an analysis of source of legitimation of this recognition.
Canadian and Québec official discourses Varied and sometimes conflicting percep-
about ethno-linguistic diversity in the field of tions of diversity persist, rather than a unified
cultural policies within an existing nation-state Canadian representation of it – although
(Canada) characterized, from an international perhaps we are in the process of achieving
perspective, by an unusually high level of a consensus in the middle of the first decade
internal ethnic heterogeneity for a developed of the second millennium. The Canadian-
society. This is the result of a combination of Québecois leadership role in the develop-
different types of ethno-linguistic diversity. ment of the international Convention on the
The sometimes contradictory contributions of Protection and Promotion of Cultural
Canada’s and Québec’s immigration policies Contents and Artistic Expressions, adopted
and other policies which have framed ethnic in 2005 under the auspices of UNESCO, sug-
relations were then examined, culminating in gests this might be the case, although
an analysis of the tensions related to conflict- Thériault’s analysis of Canadian and Québec
ing citizenship projects for the two official language policies suggests the contrary.
language groups in Canada and Québec. Whereas subsequent sections of this chapter
While the contemporary official discourses concentrated on the diversity in population
articulate cooperation, in the form of recogni- composition and the diversity of policy
tion of the legitimacy of cultural variation, this responses intended to manage the popula-
cooperation is expected to occur within the tion, the first one centred its analysis on the
more (in Québec) or less (Canada) explicit meanings and usages of the term ‘diversity’
framework of domination by one ethno- within the field of the politics of culture,
linguistic collectivity. identified differences in the semantics of the
We conclude with some analytic com- term, and outlined possible new forms of
ments about the ethno-linguistic complexity normative pluralism. The material analyzed
of Canada/Québec and the cross-cutting axes supports the conclusion that the power rela-
of diversity this reveals. Canada/Québec can tions and social differentiation issues, them-
be considered an interesting case study of selves examined later in the chapter, do shape
how to understand diversity within a post- the meanings of the concept of ‘diversity’,
colonial, contemporary society composed of always in relation to a form of idealized
a wide variety of ethno-cultural groups. As nation. Out of this initial analysis, two major
we have seen, diversity is a key feature of explicit usages appear: openness to cultural
Canadian society. It is at the very heart of diversity within nations and international
Canada’s political system and forms the nar- recognition of cultural diversity to portray
rative basis for the recognition of its varied the sum of homogeneous nations throughout
social groups. Competition and sometimes the world. In both, diversity is reduced to eth-
conflict among its constituent parts – ethnic, nicity: every other aspect of cultural diversity
linguistic, religious (and regional) – is a of the collectivities is concealed. The various
common thread running through the history usages reveal the normative aspect of the
of Canada and has also been central to term, and the concentration on a limited
Canadian sociology, notably within the portion of its possible meaning.