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9 - On exit

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 September 2009

Oonagh Reitman
Affiliation:
Research fellow in the Gender Institute London School of Economics
Avigail Eisenberg
Affiliation:
University of Victoria, British Columbia
Jeff Spinner-Halev
Affiliation:
University of Nebraska, Lincoln
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Summary

The idea that a member of a cultural minority ought to be able to exit from his or her community plays many roles in thinking about multiculturalism. I can see three roles for exit: first, in its most passive role – which I shall refer to as exit's “basic role” – exit simply figures as an option open to a member of a minority community as a citizen of the wider society. Here, exit exists as a derivative feature of a certain type of social ordering of culturally diverse – that of contemporary liberal democratic states.

However, when exit appears in multiculturalism theory, the roles it is asked to perform tend to be more active. One role – which I shall denote exit's “protective role” – calls upon exit to protect vulnerable group members against the oppression which they may suffer at the hands of their groups. The argument here is that exit can be relied upon to enable the group member to escape oppression by leaving the group.

The other role – which I shall label the “transformative role” – is related to the protective role in that both are concerned with remedying oppressive minority practices. Here, the claim is that exit can help cure a group of the oppressive elements of its distinct practices by exerting pressure to bring about their reform. Change will become desirable, perhaps inevitable, according to the argument for exit's transformative role, in order to prevent mass exodus through exit and thereby cultural annihilation.

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Chapter
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Minorities within Minorities
Equality, Rights and Diversity
, pp. 189 - 208
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2005

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  • On exit
    • By Oonagh Reitman, Research fellow in the Gender Institute London School of Economics
  • Edited by Avigail Eisenberg, University of Victoria, British Columbia, Jeff Spinner-Halev, University of Nebraska, Lincoln
  • Book: Minorities within Minorities
  • Online publication: 22 September 2009
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511490224.010
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  • On exit
    • By Oonagh Reitman, Research fellow in the Gender Institute London School of Economics
  • Edited by Avigail Eisenberg, University of Victoria, British Columbia, Jeff Spinner-Halev, University of Nebraska, Lincoln
  • Book: Minorities within Minorities
  • Online publication: 22 September 2009
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511490224.010
Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • On exit
    • By Oonagh Reitman, Research fellow in the Gender Institute London School of Economics
  • Edited by Avigail Eisenberg, University of Victoria, British Columbia, Jeff Spinner-Halev, University of Nebraska, Lincoln
  • Book: Minorities within Minorities
  • Online publication: 22 September 2009
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511490224.010
Available formats
×