Explaining odlin road: Insecurity and exclusivity

The multiple layers of inclusion and exclusion that exist within a community that prides itself on being tolerant are explored through a case study of protests against a local recovery home for addicts. The basing of exclusionary and coercive inclusionary demands in both culture and democratic rights, leads the author to argue that the identity politics fostered by multiculturalism is divisive, and ultimately runs counter to the wider aims of social justice. The author advocates instead for an emancipatory politics - multidimensionalism - that seeks to resolve and accommodate differences based in class, race, gender, sexuality and marginalized status through community building efforts, and at the level of the state.