Abstract
The modernisation thesis implied that inevitable social progress will result in cultural, religious and value pluralism becoming largely irrelevant as a factor in domestic and international politics. The plausibility of such prediction was further strengthen by an expectation that the process of globalisation and the information revolution is bound to lead to growing cultural homogenisation which in turn will facilitate the global spread of liberal democracy as the default political model.
However, the developments of the last 15 years made it clear that these predictions were unfounded and that the end of the Cold War, which at that time seemed like the end of the age of ideologies, in fact created an ideological vacuum in which such cultural "primordial ties" as ethnicity, language, land of birth or religion continue to constitute the essential aspect of the narrative identities of peoples and as such inform their political preferences. The new international context in which the eclipse of the hegemonic power of the United States and the growing tendency towards multi-polarisation is accompanied by a rising tide of populist and nationalistic tendencies, as well as growing popularity of claims to cultural exceptionalism - and not just in China - makes the problem of cultural and value pluralism politically more relevant than ever before.
Moreover, the processes of globalisation and the information revolution lead to growing trans-nationalisation of the problem of pluralism, highlighting the limitations of the theories of multicultural accommodation which do not appreciate the impact of non-domestic factors. Hence the need for a more comprehensive and interdisciplinary analysis of the political implications of cultural diversity and value pluralism.
Keynote Speakers Göran Collste (Linköping University, Sweden) Peter Jonkers (Tilburg University, The Netherlands) Graham Parkes (University College Cork, Ireland) John Skorupski (University of St Andrews, UK)