'Exploring Diversity' - IMER seminarrekke 2006-2007

The seminar builds upon a desire to explore the diverse society. By this is meant a particular intellectual orientation, and one which we believe has very significant currency. In this seminar series, the starting point is that the diverse society is a co ncept which can be made to encapsulate significant features of our societies, generated not least by migration and immigrant activities. The diverse society is in this context expressive of a number of social transformations, which require significant the oretical, espistemological and ontological developments. To understand the features of the diverse society is also of crucial import in order to devise an understanding of the parameters of meaningful activity of the political system as well as being able to devise policies. The diverse society perspective can be said to encapsulate a number of theoretical and other developments, and in this respect it is an emblematic designation with a dual determination. On the one hand, the diverse society perspectiv e denotes a critical ambition to scrutinize refine or even abandon a number of analytical starting points (not least in the shape of a number of dichotomies) which have proven insufficient to help further advance our understanding of our societies. On the other, the diverse society perspective denotes a number of 'positive' contributions to our attempts to theoretically grasp changes in our societies. The field of imer research may more clearly than many other fields of the social sciences show the need f or new thinking, which then would account for the fact that it attracts the attention of many or most leading social scientists of the day.