Abstract
This article discusses the complex meaning of ethnicity and identity in the multicultural society of today with reference to Swedish society. Sweden, a pronouncedly multiethnic society, is today undergoing division along ethnic lines. Social inequalities tend to be understood in terms of cultural difference. This development seems to be characteristic of most European countries. Culture is usually connected with ethnicity and race and understood as pure, as an ‘essence’, as related to some original and eternal ethnic core. In this way important aspects of cultural dynamic in multicultural society are left unobserved. What is usually not recognized are cultural crossings and the emergence of composite identities. Within the framework of multicultural society new cultures, identities and ethnicities are created. Departing from some general features of the dominant discourse on ethnicity, its historical roots and its relations to culture and multicutturalism, I discuss problems of cultural essentialism.
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Aleksandra Ålund is a professor at the Department of Sociology, University of Umeå, Sweden and the Department of Ethnic Studies, University of Linköping. In addition to her general work on ethnicity and multiculturalism in Europe she has, over a number of years, done research on multi-ethnic suburban areas in Stockholm, with special focus on gender and youth research. In connection with this she has written a number of articles and books published in English and Swedish.