Book Review: General Politics: Real Green: Sustainability after the End of Nature
| Date | 01 May 2013 |
| Author | Christopher Hrynkow |
| DOI | 10.1111/1478-9302.12016_62 |
| Published date | 01 May 2013 |
| Subject Matter | Book Review |
over others precludes greater debate into particular
areas of interest for the themes of the book, such as
democracy, participation and the state, particularly in
the case of Latin America where leftist governments are
collaborating in regional projects. Nonetheless, the
volume is an adventurous collection of absorbing case
studies providing a grounded representation of complex
relationships within democracy from a refreshing per-
spective.Democracy in the South is an important addition
to the literature on participation and democratisation.
Adam Gill
(University of Liverpool)
Immigrant Nation by Paul Scheffer. Cambridge:
Polity Press, 2011. 389pp., £19.99, ISBN
9780745649627
In this ambitious and, at times,provocative book,Dutch
academic and political commentator Paul Scheffer
offers a reassessment of the effects of migration in a
globalising world. Focusing primarily on urban com-
munities of Western Europe and North America in the
post-war period, and particularly the last two decades,
the author offers a critique of multiculturalism from
the perspective of both migrants and host communities.
Highlighting the societal tensions created by mass
inflows, he argues that the incorporation of migrants is
characterised by three inherent stages: avoidance, con-
flict and accommodation.
Adopting a normative approach, Scheffer argues that
multiculturalism has failed and that societies must find
new ways of living together. Based upon self-reflection
and the clarification of mutual obligations, reciprocity
between migrant and host communities will create
more open societies and lead to new forms of citizen-
ship. He particularly emphasises the apparent dilemmas
created by Islamic migrant communities in liberal
democratic societies. Scheffer argues for tougher
migrant selection criteria, greater transparency of
immigration policies and a public debate regarding the
nature and extent of an ‘open society’.
While this is a cogent and expansive treatise on the
controversial issue of incorporation, its thematic argu-
ment that the impact of migration on social dynamics
is manifested in a phased, linear pattern of avoidance,
conflict and accommodation may be criticised as some-
what simplistic. It homogenises the substantial diversity
of social and cultural experiences both of migrants and
of host communities. Moreover, by privileging the
apparent negative aspects of immigration, such as
welfare dependency,inequalities, disparate levels of edu-
cational attainment and crime, Scheffer could also be
criticised for unwarranted pessimism. Having offered a
critique of multiculturalism, he proposes no practical
alternative solutions other than a vague appeal for
greater reciprocity and new forms of citizenship
without explaining what these may entail or how they
might be established.While calling, at times hyperboli-
cally,for societies to move beyond multiculturalism,the
book transmutes into an argument in favour of con-
trolling and reducing migration.
This is a substantial piece of work that takes the
form of an extended essay,drawing on historical, socio-
logical, philosophical, journalistic, literary and anecdotal
sources. The empirical component emphasises the
experience of the Netherlands, but Scheffer also draws
on examples from Britain, Germany, France and the
US. Highly accessible, this book will be of interest to
both a specialist and a general readership with an inter-
est in this topical contemporary issue.
Caryl Thompson
(University of Nottingham)
General Politics
Real Green: Sustainability after the End of
Nature by Manuel Arias-Maldonado. Farnham:
Ashgate, 2012. 211pp., £55.00, ISBN 9781409424093
In this volume, Manuel Arias-Maldonado unfolds a
series of recommendations for achieving a green politi-
cal praxis that is at once successful and realistic. Here,
he argues against a tendency in green politics to high-
light the ecological crisis, which he considers not only
alarmist but also irrelevant in a period when nature has
ended its existence as an independent entity. In this
light, Arias-Maldonado recasts green ideas of interde-
pendence to suggest that we are now dominant over
and intertwined with nature, so that everything is
socio-natural.
In particular,Ar ias-Maldonado associates green poli-
tics with a quite static view of classical environmental
positions, like misplaced preferences for the preserva-
tion of different forms of nature, suspicion of technol-
ogy and a bioregionalism.As a cor rective, he posits that
BOOK REVIEWS 265
© 2013 TheAuthors. Political Studies Review © 2013 Political Studies Association
Political Studies Review: 2013, 11(2)
To continue reading
Request your trial