The Possibilities of Tolerance: Intercultural Dialogue in a Multicultural Europe

Wilson, Helen F.

Abstract

Tolerance is everywhere. The Council of Europe endeavours to build it, schools are required to teach it, and neighbours are asked to extend it. It features in citizenship ceremonies, city-marketing campaigns, and religious texts and is attached to a variety of different objects, people, and behaviours. Yet despite its ubiquitous circulation as a moral good, critiques of tolerance as a way of relating have called for its rejection in favour of alternative projects such as respect and equality. In this paper I contextualise recent critiques and ask what possibilities remain for a politics of tolerance in multicultural Europe. In so doing, I argue that critiques are insufficiently attuned to the different contexts in which tolerance becomes productive and offer a starting point for further empirical research on its embodied practice. Using an example of dialogue, I argue that tolerance can be intrinsic to the development of alternative relations when positioned as part of an ongoing struggle to multiply ways of thinking and acting. I finish by reflecting on the relationship between tolerance, agonism, and dialogue, to outline a more pragmatic politics of difference, arguing that it is not enough to call for alternative projects without attending to the difficult and incremental learning that such projects demand.

Citation

Wilson, H. F. (2014). The Possibilities of Tolerance: Intercultural Dialogue in a Multicultural Europe. Environment and Planning D: Society and Space, 32(5), 852-868. https://doi.org/10.1068/d13063p

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Feb 4, 2014
• Online Publication Date: Sep 10, 2014
• Publication Date: Oct 1, 2014
• Deposit Date: Sep 14, 2017
• Publicly Available Date: Nov 7, 2017
• Journal: Environment and Planning D: Society and Space
• Print ISSN: 0263-7758
• Electronic ISSN: 1472-3433
• Publisher: SAGE Publications
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 32
• Issue: 5
• Pages: 852-868
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1068/d13063p
• Public URL: https://durham-repository.worktribe.com/output/1349162