Cultural policy and cultural diversity in Finland

How Finnish Muslim Students Perceive and Deal with Religious and Cultural Difference: Negotiating Religious Tradition with Modern Liberal and Postmodern Ideals

“…The development of the religious and cultural identities of the students is supported because this is regarded as an important means of enhancing their integration into Finnish society. This reflects the fact that the endeavour to integrate individuals has been the primary reason for granting collective cultural rights in Finland [22].…”

“…Thus, even though the curriculum puts an emphasis on religious traditions, presenting religions as cultural sources for students to individually draw from reflects influences from postmodern individualism. The postmodern ideal of celebrating difference is further strengthened by the common educational ethos according to which prejudices are dissolved and tolerance increased by understanding cultural diversity as a resource and a source of enrichment [22].…”

Multiculturalism as a Foucauldian Technology of Power: <i>Contructing a Muslim religious identity online in Finland and the Quebec province (Canada)</i>

“…Integration has been a key concept of multicultural politics in both our study contexts since the 1990s (Saukkonen & Pyykkönen 2008;Potvin, Eid & Venel 2007: 21). Even though it is often presented "in terms of phases that must culminate with successful incorporation into the host culture" (Bhatia & Ram 2009: 140), different pressures to 'integrate' can apply to different categories of individuals.…”

“…Compared with other European and Nordic countries, the fact that there has been few immigrants in Finland has triggered a popular understanding and representation of Finland as a 'homogeneous nation' (Saukkonen & Pyykkönen 2008) and thus multiculturalism as "an element that comes from outside of Finnish society" (Clarke 1999: 36). This is reflected also in Finland's multicultural policies (Garcea 2006).…”

Den utmanande diskussionen - Debattskrift om kulturpolitik och identiteter i Norden

“…En möjlig väg ut ur dilemmat att behöva välja mellan kulturpolitik, mångfaldspo-litik och integrationspolitik är enligt Saukkonen & Pyykkönen (2008) att parallellt genomföra åtgärder som ligger inom alla dessa politikområden.…”