Analyzing the multiculturalism crisisin light of the systematic sociological theory
The author examines the European “multicultural fiasco” from the point of view of the systematic sociological theory. Appealing to such aspects of the sociological system theory as “self-description”, “differentiation” and “double contingency” allows explaining the underlying reasons for the intercultural dialogue fiasco, and the tragic manifestations of Europe's unsuccessful “wide open arms” attitude. Referring to the works of T. Parsons and N. Luhmann, the author suggests viewing Europe's attempt to build a multicultural community as self-differentiating subsystems adjusting to one another, and also ponders to what extent the need to build a multicast society lead to the host community facing a self-description crisis. Examining European multiculturalism development's long term background brings the author to the conclusion that one-sided self-differentiation on behalf of the host majority, given the situation when they are prepared for internal changes under the influence of increasing external diversity and minorities tending to be communicatively isolated, is insufficient for stable internal communications among European societies' social systems. Also, the failure of European multiculturalism reflects the failed policy of unilateral self-differentiation, which in Europe was accompanied by the host European culture's crisis of self-description. The system theory somewhat successfully shows that the multicultural fiasco is in fact the failure of the double contingency between the host majority and the “guests”.While pondering alternatives for multiculturalism, the author notes that many European researchers sympathize with the concept of interculturalism (based on its “dialogical nature”). However, when analyzing Canadian experience in intercultural coexistence, the author concludes that, despite success in North America, the interculturalism strategy is not ideal for Europe. The author concludes that a more informative way to evaluate cross-cultural interaction strategies would be from a communication study standpoint - analyzing the successful establishment of communication and systems of self-description used by those who represent various communities.