This month, Routledge releases “Public Commissions on Cultural and Religious Diversity: Comparisons, Challenges and Impact,” by Solange Lefebvre (University of Montreal) and Patrice Brodeur (KAICIID). The publisher’s description follows:
The question of how to manage cultural and religious diversity has found expression in several countries through the creation of government-initiated public commissions. These commissions have produced carefully written reports on the contexts and challenges regarding national identity and the impact of greater diversity on the law, public institutions, integration and religion. Analysing the work of public commissions in Britain, France, Belgium, and Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Italy, Singapore and Norway the book reflects on how they were formed, the way they framed religious and cultural diversity, the questions and controversies they examined, the key political actors involved, public and media reception, legal challenges and the impact they had both on public policy and in concrete situations such as work, schools and health care. The reports represent a rich body of work charting the fundamental questions nations face about their nature, history, and future while the different ways they were initiated and their impact on peoples’ lives tells us much about different approaches to the issues of cultural identity between countries.