Tolerance and different values
Should minorities become like the majority or can different cultures live side by side?
A meeting organised by the Politiken, Humanity in Action and the British Council
30 March 2011, Copenhagen
Denmark – similarly to the UK and many other European countries – faces unprecedented demographic changes and the Danish society is undergoing a profound transformation which is hard to accept by some citizens. On 30 March 2011 the Politiken newspaper auditorium was a home to a very relevant discussion on tolerance and different values – this topic is currently high on the public agenda in Denmark.
The panel included sociologists from both the UK and Denmark, a member of the Danish Parliament and British and Danish media representatives.
Panelists discussed among others whether:
- 'multiculturalism' will work
- there is a discrepancy between the reality presented by politicians and the media, and the reality of the everyday lives of Europeans in the work place, schools and local communities
- the Danish and the British - and other Europeans – are more tolerant of common values
- Europeans - new and old – are becoming more tolerant of each other's culture
Panel
- Peter Gundelach - Professor of Sociology at the University of Copenhagen, the author of a report on democratic values among Muslim minorities and the majority population in Denmark
- Richard Jenkins - Professor of Sociology at the University of Sheffield and the author of the book about the Danes and their relationship with immigrants: ‘Being Danish: Paradoxes Identity in Everyday Life”
- Yildiz Akdogan - Member of the Folketing - the Parliament of Denmark – for the Social Democrats and Member of the Board of a human rights network, Humanity in Action.
- Dolan Cummings - British commentator, editor of the online review 'Culture Wars', one of the leaders of the UK think-tank, The Institute of Ideas
- Anders Jerichow - Feature editor, Politiken
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