Francqui Prize Conference

Francqui Prize Conference
Cultural diversity versus economic solidarity.
Is there a tension? How must it be resolved?
Brussels, 28/2/03-1/3/03

In June 2001, Philippe Van Parijs was awarded the Francqui Prize. Part of this annual prize consists in the funding, by the Francqui Foundation, of a major international conference in the area of interest of the laureate.

The conference took place on 28 February and 1 March 2003 at the University Foundation (Brussels), with the active participation of 120 invited scholars from over 20 countries and Crown Prince Philippe of Belgium. The conference was opened by Professor Mark Eyskens, former Prime Minister of Belgium and Chairman of the Francqui Foundation, and the last speaker was Professor Frank Vandebroucke, Belgium's federal Minister for social affairs.

Twelve papers were circulated in advance and briefely presented at the conference. Each discussion was introduced by two comments, one long and one short in each case focusing on two papers simultaneously. All papers and comments are or will soon be downloadable from this site. Their final versions will be gathered in a collective volume to be published by the Francqui Foundation (in conjunction with De Boeck Université) in a series consisting of all the proceedings of the conferences organized by its successive laureates. 

The whole book and each of its chapters can be downloaded from Cultural diversity versus economic solidarity.

 

Theme of the conference

Presumption. Other things being equal, the more cultural (and in particular linguistic) homogeneity within the population of a politically defined territory, the better the prospects in terms of economic solidarity. Or, conversely, the more is done to preserve cultural (and in particular linguistic) diversity - typically by creating territorial subunits and giving them the power to protect their distinct languages -, the poorer the prospects, other things being equal, for a viable institutionalised solidarity embracing the whole population. The underlying mechanisms are diverse (multidimensional efficiency costs of linguistic diversity, extensive autonomy of linguistically distinct federal units, reduced trans-regional mobility, development of separate public forums, lesser emotional identification with "allophones", etc.) and may operate to very different extents in different contexts, but the resulting presumption seems strong enough (seen from Belgium at any rate) to be used as a point of departure.

Questions. On this backgound, the conference should focus on three sorts of questions:
1° Is there really such a trade off ?
2° If there is one, what principles should guide us in the institutional choices to be made?
3° What are the most promising experiments or proposals about how best to soften or handle the trade off (if there is one)?

Interdisciplinary. The aim is to foster a fruitful interaction between (1) people who know and understand (some of) the relevant facts in such multilingual polities as the Congo, South Africa, India, Canada or the European Union, and are interested in the question of what should be done; and (2) people who have thought about the underlying general normative issues, and are interested in the concrete contexts in which they arise.

Papers and comments

SESSION 1
Papers by

David LAITIN (Department of political science, Stanford University),
Language Policy and Civil War - Revised version
François GRIN (Institute of translation and interpretation, Université de Genève), On the Costs of Cultural Diversity - Revised version

Comments by

Jean LAPONCE (Department of political science, University of British Columbia)
Relating Cultural Heterogeneity to Economic and Social Solidarity
Rob REICH (Department of political science, Stanford University)
Responding to papers by David Laitin and François Grin

 SESSION 2
Papers by

Stuart N. SOROKA, Richard JOHNSTON and Keith BANTING (Queen's University), "Ethnicity, Trust and the Welfare State"
David MILLER (University of Oxford), "Social Justice in Multicultural Societies"

Comments by

Anne PHILLIPS (Gender Institute, London School of Economics & Political Science)
Does Trust Matter?
Andreas FOLLESDAL (Department of philosophy, University of Oslo)
Comments on Soroka, Johnston and Banting, and Miller

SESSION 3
Papers by

Dominique SCHNAPPER (EHESS), "Linguistic Pluralism as a Serious Challenge to Democratic Life" - Translated version
Keith BANTING & Will KYMLICKA (Queen's University), "Do Multiculturalism Policies Undermine the Welfare State?" - Revised version

Comment by

Justine LACROIX (Faculty of Political Science, Université libre de Bruxelles), Comments on Schnapper and Banting/Kymlica
Neus TORBISCO (Faculty of law, Universitat Pompeu Fabra), Beyond the Nation-State. Some questions to Dominique Schnapper and Will Kymlicka&Keith Banting

SESSION 4
Papers by

Jeremy SEEKINGS (University of Cape Town), "Institutional Design, Cultural Diversity and Economic Solidarity. A Comparison of South Africa, Brazil and Nigeria" - Revised version
Yael TAMIR (University of Tel Aviv), "Nation and class. Nationalism as an instrument for inter-class solidarity" - Revised version

Comments by

Fabio WALTENBERG (Université catholique de Louvain), Have Seekings and Tamir persuasively refuted the existence of the conference trade-off?
Serena OLSARETTI (Department of philosophy, University of Cambridge)
Nation and class. Nationalism as an instrument for inter-class solidarity or comments on Seekings and Tamir

SESSION 5
Papers by

Eliana LA FERRARA (Department of economics, Università Bocconi, Milano), "Solidarity in Heterogeneous Communities" - Revised version
Sam BOWLES (Santa Fe Institute, New Mexico) and Jung-Kyoo Choi, "The Co-Evolution of Love and Hate."

Comments by

Andrew WILLIAMS (Department of philosophy, University of Reading and Harvard University)

Discussion launched by

Ingrid ROBEYNS (Department of political science, Universitait van Amsterdam)
Comments on Bowles/Choi and La Ferrara :"The co-evolution of Love and Hate", by Samuel Bowles and Jung-Kyoo Choi, and "Solidarity in Heterogeneous Communities", by Eliana La Ferrara

SESSION 6
Papers by

Ugo PAGANO (Università degli Studi di Siena), "Linguistic Standardization and Redistribution as Alternative Insurance Mechanisms "
Peter A. KRAUS (Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin), "Between Mill and Hallstein. Some Challenges to Intercultural Solidarity in the EU" - Revised version

Comments by

Patrick SAVIDAN (Department of philosophy, Université de Paris IV-Sorbonne)
Multiculturalism and economic solidarity. A social democratic challenge for the European Union

Dario CASTIGLIONE (Department of government, University of Exeter)
Discussion opening comments

SESSION 7
SATURDAY AFTERNOON 1/3/03, 16.30-18.30

Will KYMLICKA (Queen's University, Concluding Reflections - What Have We Learned?
Brian BARRY (Columbia University)

Concluding reflections by

Philippe VAN PARIJS

 

Additional background material

| 25/01/2010 |