The Multicultural Agora in the Age of Globalization

Abstract

Modern society is becoming more and more complex and multicultural. In this scenario, social fragmentation and immigrants' marginalization are also emerging as serious issues of nowadays democratic life. This research aimed at identifying the best approaches to reach a twofold goal: granting respect for cultural diversity, while at the same time preserving social cohesion. On that, the main schools of thought, Liberalism and Communitarianism, have been taken in account and confronted with the human rights framework to test their validity. In addition, to show how active integration policies are key to foster inter-cultural communication and encounter, real examples coming from Italy and Norway are described.