Multiculturalism and governing neighbourhoods

Parekh's theory of multiculturalism offers a number of insights which are u seful in analysing the role of neighbourhood governance in promoting social cohesion within culturally diverse small areas. The problems of neighbourh ood governance are rooted in disjointed structural change across Europe ove r the past 25 years. In this context, the formation of a multicultural Euro pean polity risks creating a white European ethnicity which will institutio nalise specific forms of racism within distressed neighbourhoods. At the sa me time, the shift from government to governance as a way to address the pr oblems of governability in structurally reconstituted societies is associat ed with the top-down imposition of specific forms of neighbourhood governan ce which can then, unwittingly, become part of the institutionalisation of racism. Using Parekh's theory to construct a critique yields a set of princ iples which illuminate a number of key strategic elements which can be used practically in designing neighbourhood governance mechanisms and which ill uminate the pre-occupations in the existing literature.