Paper short abstract:

This paper deals with the public discourse on and social practice of cultural diversity in Austria and the impact of the claim of PC’ness in the field of social sciences and NGOs. The main concern is to raise questions about the discourse on 'them' and 'us' regarding the issue of discrimination.

Paper long abstract:

This paper deals with the possible consequences of the interrelation of a specialized scientific discourse and of the everyday life discourse on concepts of discrimination in NGOs dealing with minority rights. One focus of the paper is on the impact of the claim of political correctness in the field of social sciences and NGOs.

As a case in point, I will address the public discourse on and social practice of "cultural diversity" in Austria. Based on empirical data dealing with the context between racist discourse and social practice, the paper argues that there is a considerable increase of insecurity of advocating an opinion about issues concerning immigration, multiculturalism or, for instance, the EU enlargement. My analysis shows, that there are difficulties in deciding what can/should be said - how can "the others" be termed. Some of the people interviewed have a background in social sciences but still lack applicable terms and definitions. Which terms should they use, "the Turks in Austria" "people with migrant background" or "Turkish 2nd generation immigrants" ... ?

The main concern of the paper is to raise questions about the discourse on "them" and "us" regarding the issue of discrimination embedded in history and social hierarchy. PC-Talk as deception of social realities or changing practice, will be discussed by the means of the findings of empirical research. Based on the Austrian example I will dwell on and discuss this possibilities/necessities of anthropological interventions in trying to explicate interrelations between political (correct) language and political (correct) action. The challenge for social anthropology is to offer useable concepts for society and NGO work.