ABSTRACT
This chapter addresses several approaches to ethno-cultural pluralism and then highlights how specific Canadian public institutions, in charge of promoting a sense of national culture, are in practice adopting policies of transcultural orientations that have the potential to undermine the traditional essentialist approaches to culture. The history and scope of multiculturalism in Canada, Australia, Sweden or Great Britain are well documented in the literature. The chapter begins with a broad glance at current ethnocultural diversity in the world. Here it considers four main approaches to public policy regarding ethnocultural diversity. The four main approaches are monoculturalism, interculturalism, multiculturalism and transculturalism. Having described these models as exclusionist, differentialist, pluralist and relationalist, the Canadian case is examined more closely to better delineate the approaches being discussed. This pluralist, inclusive emphasis can be better understood when one considers that Canada, together with Australia, constitutes the world's most pluricultural society.
