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Multiculturalism appeared on the British public agenda in the early 1970s and has since undergone several important changes. In recent years multiculturalism has been blamed for a variety of problems including lack of social cohesion and terrorism. As a result, even those who are sympathetic to it have been turning against it. This lecture will explore why multiculturalism has come to be understood in a negative way, and outline a more sensible way of responding to cultural diversity.  

Educated at the Universities of Bombay and London, Lord Bhikhu Parekh Bhikhu Parekh is Professor Emeritus at the Universities of Hull and Westminster and also Fellow of the British Academy, the European Academy, and until recently President of the Academy of Social Sciences. He is a fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and of the Academy of the Learned Societies for Social Sciences. Lord Parekh was chair of the Runnymede Commission on the Future of Multi-Ethnic Britain (1998–2000), whose report, The Future of Multi-Ethnic Britain, was published in 2000.  Lord Parekh is a Labour Member of the House of Lords and author of several books on political philosophy, the latest being A New Politics of Identity: Political Principles for an Interdependent World (2008). He is Vice-President of The Gandhi Foundation, a trustee of the Anne Frank Educational Trust, and a member of the National Commission on Equal Opportunity. Professor Parekh has received many awards throughout his distinguished career including the BBC’s Lifetime Achievement Award in 1999; the Sir Isaiah Berlin Prize for Lifetime Contribution to Political Philosophy by the Political Studies Association (2002); and the Padma Bhushan honours in the 2007 Indian Republic Day Honours list.