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Kulturelle Diversität im Spannungsfeld zwischen Globalisierung und (Re-)Nationalisierung.
Eine Diskursanalyse von Presse und Sozialen Medien in Deutschland, Frankreich und Québec (2015-2019)

(Supervisors: Hans-Jürgen Lüsebrink, Saarland / Reiner Marcowitz, Metz
Mentoring: Laurence McFalls, Montréal)

The notion of cultural diversity is at the heart of contemporary socio-political issues in Western societies between, on the one hand, an ever-increasing globalization and, on the other hand, the resurgence of nationalist discourses. The phase between 2015 and 2019 marks a decisive turning point in the discourse on diversity in Western societies diverging between the maximalist ideal of a pluralist and egalitarian citizenship without ethno-cultural limitations and the retreat into a national society perceived as homogeneous marked by the legacy of the 19th and 20th centuries. The controversy focuses on the compatibility of cultural diversity and national unity, and debates how to construct a model of society that both accepts, values, and helps diversity to flourish and that ensures the integrative framework of the majority society as well as the maintenance of the cultural heritage.
With a critical discourse analysis approach, this thesis investigates the negotiation of cultural diversity in three Western societies. Contrary to the binary vision of the discourse on diversity that marks the scientific literature, this thesis proposes an analysis of the different positions taken by the discourse participants. Stipulating that the discourse cannot be reduced to the simple polarization between supporters of a pluralist openness on the one hand and exclusionary actors on the other, I seek to point out the different approaches that participants in the discourse present in order to manage the pluralist society. To do so, this thesis focuses on parliamentary debates on cultural diversity in three different Western nations - France, Germany and Quebec - in a phase of continuous cultural heterogenization, namely between 2015 and 2019, where the discourse evolves significantly from its previous development. National parliaments, as the elected representation of citizens, function as mediators between society and government: they not only exercise their legislative function in the areas of immigration and integration policy, combating discrimination and extremism, and securing and maintaining social cohesion, but they also comment on ongoing sociopolitical developments. Therefore, the analysis of the parliamentary debates allows for an examination of the diversity of opinion offered by the discourse on cultural diversity that marks politics between 2015 and 2019.
The questions that guide the analysis of the sociopolitical discourse on cultural diversity refer to three levels: the micro-analysis focuses on the content of the parliamentarians' statements, their conceptualizations of cultural diversity and their linking of different terms in a discursive field. This analysis distinguishes not only the ideologies influencing the different attitudes, but also the justification of these positions. The meso-analysis considers the transfer of the concept to the political management of cultural diversity. In all three nations, most parliamentarians refer to assimilationist, integrative, multi- or intercultural models of integration. Moreover, the different forms of cultural diversity impose new motives in the debates of national parliaments between 2015 and 2019. The macro-analysis finally integrates the corpus of debates in the global evolution of the discourses on diversity firstly in the broader framework of society, which includes notably the discourse of the press, and secondly in its evolution since the 1990s. The comparative approach not only helps to point out national particularities of the different discourses in continuity with their evolution since 1990. It also allows alluding to the convergences and divergences of the discourses on diversity on a more global scale and thus opens a perspective for the future development of diversity management in Western societies.