Suchergebnisse

National report, EC Daphne project "Evaluating the impact of existing legislation in Europe with regard to female genital mutilation"

This article intends to present the Scandinavian legislation on female genital mutilation and explore the implications of the laws. Juxtaposing trends of plastic genital surgery in the West with claims that female circumcision may be a practice generally abandoned in Scandinavia, we highlight the double morality inherent in current public discussions. Finally, we pose the question: Is the legal principle of equality before the law regarded when it comes to alterations of the female genitals?

In The Democratic Contradictions of Multiculturalism, Jens-Martin Eriksen and Frederik Stjernfelt elaborate on the concept of "culturalism." In Telos 163 (Summer 2013), Eriksen continues to analyze its intricacies under the heading "Culturalism: When the Culture becomes Political Ideology."2 Horizontal class divisions are out, vertical cultural barriers are in. Seemingly, culture has squeezed out all other concepts. The present essay shall broaden this discussion by asking the question: What is the relation between the Counter-Enlightenment of the early nineteenth century and today's culturalism?

Here, Adamson et al claim that multiculturalism is inherently inimical to the enlightenment tradition of the left, implicated instead in the conservative, early romanticism of Johann Herder that multiculturalism fulfills all the criteria of a conservative ideology. Its exclusive focus on groups and the concomitance of the absent individual makes it, moreover, more radical than Herder's timid conservatism, in which the individual as a concrete being in time and space is central. Multiculturalism--ie, a multitude of cultures--implies that the entity expected to shine and give color is culture. No less fierce form of conservatism would manage to idealize the ethnic community and yet turn a blind eye to its real members. Save for defending a generous immigration policy, multiculturalism has little in common with leftist views. Analytically, multiculturalism constitutes a pronounced form of conservatism. This illiberalism of multiculturalism the priority of group and tradition over individual rights has long been noted. Adapted from the source document.