The State, the Market and Cultural Diversity

Most contemporary societies are multicultural and multiethnic entities in which individuals and groups coexist with sometimes very diverse ethnic and cultural identities. Cultural and identity-based diversity is multi-faceted. ¹ National minorities, indigenous peoples, religious minorities, populations of immigrant origin, sexual orientation and gender minorities, ‘racialized’ minorities, and so on, constitute a number of intermediary spaces between the individual and the abstract concept of ‘nation’ structured by the state. Some of these groups make claims for their public recognition, ranging from simple symbolic recognition to recognition as a distinct cultural entity in society. Others simply hope to safeguard and transmit their cultural heritage to future generations. Their leaders sometimes ask the state to provide them with the necessary means to accomplish their goals. In any case, all are supposed to coexist and share, to a certain point, the urban space and social and political space in which they find themselves.