Traditional Concepts of Integration

About the lecture

In this lecture, we think about classical approaches to integration and the role of culture in this process, focusing in particular on: (i) the two main factors on which integration has historically been based in Europe – religion and the nation state; (ii) Émile Durkheim’s work on mechanical solidarity and organic solidarity, and his idea that integration operates through economic difference, or a division of labour, and cultural sameness; (iii) the multiculturalist challenge of integration – how to produce integration in societies where there is cultural difference rather than sameness.

About the lecturer

Tariq Modood is Professor of Sociology, Politics and Public Policy at the University of Bristol. Over the last twenty-five years, he has worked on the theory and politics of racism, racial equality, and multiculturalism and secularism, with special reference to British Asian Muslims. Some of his more recent publications include Multiculturalism: A Civic Idea (2007) and (co-authored with G. Levey) Secularism, Religion and Multicultural Citizenship.