The Carriers of Diversity within the Police Forces: A “Weberian” Approach to Diversity in Germany
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Cultural diversity has been one the most pressing challenges to present-
day Germany. Issues of diversity and, its corollary from the perspective
of the recipient society, the practice of toleration—as opposed
to the personal attitude of tolerance—are being paradigmatically
debated around the fate of Muslims. Although not new, Muslims
presence and public claims, such as the claim for legal recognition of
Islam and religious instruction in public schools, have undoubtedly
raised the issue of diversity anew. Some recent events, such as the
“Ludin case,” a German teacher of Afghan descent who fought the
federal state of Baden-Wurttemberg to wear a hijab in class, is a telling
example (see Beverly Weber’s article examining the case in this issue
of German Politics and Society). Similarly to the debate raging over
headscarves in France, this case seems to point to the “Muslim” as an
important figure of the stranger, understood as symbol of group
mediation, of the group’s inner and outer boundaries.1 But, unlike the
headscarf affair in France, where pupils are at the center stage of the
debate, the case of teachers in Germany bears witness to a different
type of stranger as outlined by Simmel in terms of spatial and symbolic
position within the group. Indeed, he/she is a stranger “from
within.”2 As such, Muslim growing and enduring presence in Germany
showcases practical problems encountered with the “management
of diversity” within some state institutions. Looking at the assessment of these dilemmas not only points to conflicting normative
models of social organization, but also puts in the hot seat those
who, to paraphrase Dubet, carry out le travail sur autrui (“work on the
other”), professionals activities, which aim at explicitly transforming
the “stranger.”