Article,
A critique of integration
Identities: Global Studies in Culture and Power, 21 (6): 633-641 (2014)
Abstract
The term ‘integration’ is a category used both in political discourse and
in sociological analysis. In political discourse, in the public debate, it has
become a magic word which accompanies repression when a political power
is unable to deal with major difficulties, particularly in poor neighbourhoods.
The so-called ‘models of integration’ are all failing, whether in the United
Kingdom after the terrorist attacks of 2005, in the Netherlands after the murder
of Theo Van Gogh and Pim Fortuyn, or in France after the riots of 2005.
In political and social life, integration is far from able to account for realities
or to implement public policies successfully. From a sociological perspective,
integration is connected with approaches which are centred on society or the
social system, much more than with those that deal with the subjectivity of
individuals and their capacity for personal or collective action. This means
that integration belongs much more to traditional sociological thinking than
to the new contemporary sociological imagination.
