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Articulating minority nationhood: cultural and political dimensions in Q uébec's reasonable accommodation debate
Author(s) -
Laxer Emily,
Carson Rachael Dianne,
Korteweg Anna C.
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
nations and nationalism
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.655
H-Index - 44
eISSN - 1469-8129
pISSN - 1354-5078
DOI - 10.1111/nana.12046
Subject(s) - politics , sociology , national identity , optimal distinctiveness theory , nationalism , immigration , assertion , gender studies , political science , political economy , law , social psychology , psychology , computer science , programming language
Given their precarious position within larger states, national minorities cannot rely on federal governments to affirm their nationhood. Moreover, insofar as nationhood is predicated on a shared history, language and culture, immigrants place additional strains on the maintenance of national distinctiveness and the political claims that derive from it. In 2006–2007, following a series of confrontations over religious practices in the public sphere, Q uébec's provincial government appointed the B ouchard– T aylor C ommission to investigate avenues for the accommodation of immigrant‐related cultural and religious differences. While it failed to generate policy, the commission did provide a discursive space for the (re)assertion of Q uébécois nationhood. Analysing the production of national identity in newspaper debates of the B ouchard– T aylor report, we offer an alternative to the ethnic–civic paradigm in nationalism theory. Rather than treat ethnic and civic as two separate ends of a single continuum, we conceptualise a relationship between two dimensions: one of culture and one of politics. We show that in contemporary articulations of Q uébec national identity, the prerequisites of political membership derive their meaning from a productive tension between blood‐based and adoptive conceptions of national culture.