Cultural Diversity versus Economic Solidarity Philippe Van Paijs (Ed.)
Other things being equal, the more cultural diversity, the worse the prospects for economic solidarity. Is this really true? If it is, what can be done to soften the tension? And if a tension remains, should solidarity give way to diversity, or should diversity be sacrificed to solidarity? For two days, over a hundred scholars from several disciplines and many countries gathered in Brussels to discuss these questions intensively. Some of the world's most respected specialists in the fields concerned prepared papers that were precirculated, briefly presented by their authors, and discussed by pre-appointed commentators, discussion launchers and a lively audience.
Structured in a way that mirrors the transdisciplinary format of the conference, the present volume contains most of its ingredients, in several cases substantially revised in the light of the discussion. By bringing together contributions from sociolinguists and economic theorists as well as from political philosophers and political scientists and by staging a dialogue between them, it sheds new light on an explosive issue that is becoming ever more essential in many countries and in the European Union as a whole. Philippe Van Parijs is professor at the Universite Catholique de Louvain, where he directs the Hoover Chair of Economic and Social Ethics since its creation in 1991, and Visiting Professor at the philosophy department of Harvard University. He previously held visiting positions in many other institutions, including the European University Institute (Florence), the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, the Catholic Faculties of Kinshasa, All Souls College (Oxford), the Institut d'etudes politiques (Paris), the Autonomous University of Barcelona and the University of Aix-Marseille. He is the author of Evolutionary Explanation in the Social Sciences (1981), Le Modele economique et ses rivaux (1990), Qu'est-ce qu'une societe juste? (1991), Marxism Recycled (1993), Real Freedom for All (1995), Sauver la Solidarite (1995), Refonder la Solidarite (1996), Ethique economique et Sociale (2000, with C. Arnsperger), What's Wrong with a Free Lunch? (2001), and Hacia una concepcion de la justicia social global (2002). He was awarded the Francqui Prize in 2001.