In search of real and principled multiculturalism: Paul Gilroy, anti-racism and the politics of recognition

This chapter critically engages with Paul Gilroy’s contributions to the theorization of multiculturalism, focusing on his analysis of informal, everyday practices of conviviality and his trenchant critiques of institutional and commodified forms of diversity. By situating Gilroy’s work within the broader intellectual and political currents of late twentieth- and early twenty-first-century Britain, the chapter illuminates the tensions between grassroots anti-racist solidarities and state-sanctioned multicultural policies. It further extends Gilroy’s insights to the Canadian context, interrogating the legacy and limitations of Canada’s official multiculturalism policy. In doing so, the chapter advances a historically grounded and principled vision of multiculturalism that resists reductive identity politics and neoliberal co-optation, while foregrounding the ethical and political stakes of recognition and anti-racism in contemporary societies.