DECONSTRUCTING CULTURAL PLURALISM

The basic premise of this article is that the revival and increasing acceptance of the concept of cultural pluralism (and its contemporary variant, multiculturalism) in popular and academic discourses today should be investigated as a problem in the sociology of knowledge. In this context, this article discusses briefly how cultural pluralism is used in popular and academic discourses today. Then, it identifies the normative structure of, and the domain assumptions underpinning, the concept. The article constructs an argument that the concept lacks conceptual precision and analytical rigor; that its ontological claims for race and ethnicity cannot be justified; and that it is epistemologically incoherent, as shown by its internal contradictions. The article concludes that the ideological implications of the concept should be investigated and that discourses on cultural pluralism, generally, would benefit by resurrecting Milton Gordon's concept of the eth - class.