Contemporary world brings along a continuing interpenetration of cultures strengthened by the migration revolution. The social space created by multiplicity of ethnic groups is very often a result of migration processes which totally formed such states as Canada or Australia. The sources of the European multiculturalism were, on the one hand, the officially accepted workforce, on the other hand – immigration being the effect of the colonial past of such states as France, Great Britain or Germany
The aim of the presented paper is to show the history of the development of research on social minorities in the environment of Bialystok sociologists. This research center, located on the north-eastern borderland of Poland, was one of the first in Poland to develop research in the field of borderland sociology. With time, the research subject has been expanded, from the analysis of the assimilation of the Belarusian minority to the contemporary face of the idea of a multicultural society, discussing not only nationality, religiosity, but also non-heteronormities.
The article presents the author’s considerations relating to the current and common problem of multiculturalism. Nowadays “multiculturalism” can be defined as co-existence – in the determined physical, social and political sphere as well as in a concrete historical period of time – of many ethnic groups representing different axiological and normative systems. The social created by multiplicity of ethnic groups is very often a result of migration processes which totally formed such states as Canada or Australia. The sources of the European multiculturalism were, on the one hand, the officially accepted workforce as Federal Republic of Germany, on the other one – immigration being the effect of the colonial past of such states as France, Holland or Britain. All these countries took up more or less advanced actions towards being able to deal with the deepening ethnic diversification. There appeared political project – multiculturalism.
In reference to Anna Śliz’s book Wielokulturowość: stygmat współczesnego świata? Próba analizy socjologicznej [Multiculturalism: The Stigma of the Modern World? An Attempt at a Sociological Analysis], the subject of this article is multiculturalism as a phenomenon, a political project, and a real kind of existing society (multiculturalism is not the same as interculturalism or transculturalism). In the discourse on multiculturalism, many specific questions arise: the inevitability of the phenomenon and its genesis; the beginnings and bases of multiculturalism as a political project and its challenges; the reality of multicultural societies—from affirmation to contestation. Model discourse over multiculturalism is confronted with a range of remarks, commentaries, and questions about its fundamental significance, for example, about the potential for realizing the idea of multiculturalism in Europe, and whether Australia and Canada are now definitely multicultural societies.
In the article, the author presents the basic relations between a nation state and a multicultural society. According to the author, the attitude of the nation state and the dominant nation in the state to the phenomenon of cultural diversity of society is a key phenomenon in the theory and practice of multiculturalism. Namely, the nation state is characterized by two strategies defining the attitude to the cultural diversity of society. It is a strategy of cultural homogenization and a pluralistic. The emergence of a pluralistic strategy begins with the occurrence and eventual growth of phenomena and processes referred to as multiculturalism and multicultural society.
Pluralism and multiculturalism are new terms in biblical studies . Pluralism used in social sciences means a conditio of society in which members of diverse ethnic, racial, religious or social groups maintain their unique cultural identities. Multicultu-ralism focuses on interactions between different groups and communities within the confines of a common society. This paper aims at analysing the practice and models of pluralism in the Bible and the evaluation of pluralism in the biblical context (from separatism in the Abraham days until the multicultural Christian community in the first century). Christianity existed as a pluralistic community from the beginning. Paul the Apostle presents the Church as the body of Christ and interactions within the Chri-stian community consisting of Jews and Gentiles are illustrated by relations between members of the body. The mission of the Church is based on various models of incul-turation (contextualisation). All of these models intersect with one another in different ways. Pluralism in the biblical studies manifests itself also in the use of different Bible translation strategies and various methods of biblical exegesis and interpretation.
Some consider the multiculturality of Wrocław to be its obvious and socially legitimised “property”, whereas others view it as controversial and refutable construct. In the paper, we would like to investigate the multiculturality of the Lower Silesia’s capital taking into account its internal differentiation, which is mostly due to the adjudicating authorities – city authorities, its citizens and researchers — as well as observable dynamics. Hence, we propose to inspect the following: firstly, the real differentiation of the social structure of Wrocław’s inhabitants and its transformations related mostly to the influx of Ukrainians, who change the ethnic cityscape; secondly, the politics of municipal authorities regarding the promotion and strengthening of the city’s image as the multicultural, open and tolerant “meeting place”, as well as initiatives inscribed therein and other observable, contradictory events; thirdly, the evaluation of Wrocław’s multiculturality and its selected aspects performed by the city’s inhabitants and revealed in the research on this phenomenon in 2011 and in two editions of Social Diagnosis of Wrocław (2014 and 2017).