1st Edition
How Groups Matter Challenges of Toleration in Pluralistic Societies
When groups feature in political philosophy, it is usually in one of three contexts: the redressing of past or current injustices suffered by ethnic or cultural minorities; the nature and scope of group rights; and questions around how institutions are supposed to treat a certain specific identity/cultural/ethnic group. What is missing from these debates is a comprehensive analysis of groups as both agents and objects of social policies. While this has been subject to much scrutiny by sociologists and social psychologists, it has received less attention from a normative and philosophical point of view. This volume asks: what problems are posed to political philosophy by a collection of individuals who act or are treated in a collective way? Focusing not only on ways in which institutions should treat groups, but also on the normative implications of considering groups as possible social agents, when acting either in vertical relations with the state or in horizontal relations with other groups (or individuals), this book explores these issues from both theoretical and practical perspectives. Contributors address both the nature of political and social philosophy itself, and the ways in which specific issues – affirmative action, race, religion and places of worship, the rights of states – have become political and social priorities.
Introduction Magali Bessone, Gideon Calder and Federico Zuolo Part I: Situating Groups, Evaluating Group Rights 1. Representing Groups Gideon Calder 2. Toleration, Groups, and Multiculturalism Sune Lægaard 3. Collective Rights, Public Goods, and Participatory Goods Peter Jones 4. States’ Rights as Group Rights: An Analytical Perspective Adina Preda 5. Resolving the Dilemma of Group Membership Suzy Killmister 6. Groups and Affirmative Action Daniel Sabbagh Part II: Groups in Practice: Constructed Identities, Specific Treatments and Legal Recognition 7. Toleration and Purpose-Built Mosques: Contestations in Contemporary Europe Anna Elisabetta Galeotti 8. Toleration, Respect, and the Cultural Defense Emanuela Ceva 9. Political, Not Ethno-Cultural: A Normative Assessment of Roma Identity in Europe Magali Bessone and Sophie Guérard de Latour 10. The Emergence and Regulation of Minority Religious Groups in Europe Giorgos Kentas and Achilles C. Emilianides 11. Beyond Groups? Types of Sharing and Normative Treatment Federico Zuolo
Biography
Gideon Calder is Reader in Ethics and Social Philosophy at the University of South Wales.
Magali Bessone is Assistant Professor in Political Philosophy at University of Rennes 1, and a Junior Member of the Institut Universitaire de France.
Federico Zuolo is Research Fellow at the University of Pavia, Italy.
