This thesis examines the tension and cooperation between politics of conformity and difference that are embedded in urban spaces, such as burials and mosques in Britain and beyond. It examines the social, political and cultural ideologies and complexities of the historical past and present by focusing on death, belonging and architecture. It will show that the past has become re-imagined and embedded into the postcolonial concrete present. Thereby, carving out new national traditions and memories that travel through time and space. The study suggests that urban space, although often ignored is important not only for our everyday consciousness and social realities, but is pivotal to examine and study especially in relation to national policies, such as “multiculturalism”.

The current global and local issues of culture such as September 11, the Bali Bombings and the “Cronulla Riots” triggered a question for the researcher: “how do primary students deal with intercultural communication in multicultural Australia in times of cultural uncertainty and complexity?” Intercultural communication studies in Australia rely heavily on those of the United States of America and the United Kingdom. For this reason, this study was planned to investigate intercultural communication in a multicultural classroom in a primary school in Australia. The research employs an ethnographical case study methodology with data collected from observation, interview and documentation. 56 Year 7 students and two classroom teachers from two classes and the school ESL (English as a Second Language) teacher were included in the study. Amongst the 56 students, 24 students were interviewed along with the classroom teachers and the ESL teacher. School documents regarding the promotion of intercultural communication were also collected during the observation period. The study found that differing language capacities of students and teachers have the greatest influence on intercultural communication. Language was observed to influence positive and negative intercultural communication in the classroom. The study also confirmed that the theory of Intercultural Communication Competence (Wiseman, 2002) supports the current ethos of this school’s curriculum. Overall, the study provides a vicarious experience of intercultural communication in an Australian multicultural classroom. Intercultural communication in this particular school did not appear to be problematic. This could be due to the teachers’ endeavours to promote intercultural communication both implicitly and explicitly. In concluding, the study suggests that this school could be a model for promoting intercultural communication with a few modifications to its programs.

What is belonging? What does belonging mean as lived experience? What happens when displacement disrupts belonging as solid given? / I investigate these questions from my unstable position as displaced cultural 'other', as artist, as woman and as city dweller. Personal memories, dreams and the experience of reality form threads of reference that are akin to Walter Benjamin's notion of memoirs, rather than being an autobiographical chronology. / I question how a sense of belonging may be instilled, maintained, lost, achieved, resisted; how a sense of otherness may develop, persist, (re)surface. Do migrants merely amplify a universal dilemma? My position as migrant is a complex interweaving of presence and absence, developed gradually over time as a result of a wide range of factors, including the abiding effect of early childhood experiences. I focus on geography and language as central to the experience of cultural displacement and move between ambivalent positions and the seemingly solid territories of authoritative theories. / The structure of the thesis reflects these complexities. It is a psychogeographical mapping of several journeys in one, like a Deleuzian rhizome route system, or Debordian dérive, or what Jean-Luc Nancy calls a mêlée. As methodology I draw on these theories to bring together complexities, by interweaving experience, practice and theory. / The thesis comprises art works and a written exegesis. Drawings, photos, maps and other artwork intersperse with writing; artefacts include text, maps, knitting and series of images that document walking projects. I link walking to uttering, to language and the telling of stories. I explore the complex dilemmas of translation, of language as loss, contained as interiority and language as appropriated, claimed from without. Both exegesis and studio work form part of a process that is expressive, while situated within a critical context. / I argue the validity of ambivalent belonging, formed and maintained in transient connections between fragmented aspects of experience, while keeping open the potentiality of ongoing change. This research into the meaning of belonging is full of intuitive beginnings and remains open ended. / Thesis (PhDVisualArts)--University of South Australia, 2005.

Global diasporas caused by wars carry many streams of people - in the 1970s one of these streams contained orphans from Vietnam delivered to white parents in the West. On arrival, the social expectation was that these children would blend seamlessly into the culture of their adoptive parents. Now some adoptees, as adults, reflect on their lives as 'Asian' or racially 'Other' children in white societies, charting the critical points in their maturation. This thesis interrogates their life histories to explore the role of birth-culture in the self-definition of people removed from that culture at birth or in childhood. Thirteen adult adopted Vietnamese participants were interviewed. These interviews provided qualitative data on issues of racial and cultural identity. These data were developed and analysed, using a framework drawn from symbolic interactionism and cultural studies, in order to reveal the interpersonal dynamics in which people were involved, and the broader cultural relations that sustained them. The findings reveal that in early childhood the adopted Vietnamese identity process was shaped by a series of identifications with, and affirmations of, sharing their adoptive parents racial and cultural identity. Such identifications were then challenged once the adoptees entered society and were seen by others as different. The participants' attempts to locate a secure sense of self and identity within the world they are placed in are disturbed by numerous uncertainties surrounding racial and cultural difference. One of the most crucial uncertainties is the adopted Vietnamese knowledge about their cultural background. While most felt they lacked positive knowledge about Vietnam and racial diversity, their sense of identity was unsettled by experiences with racism and negative cultural stereotypes throughout their late childhood to adolescence. As their recognition and acceptance of their difference develops in adulthood, they experience a degree of empowerment due to their being able to access more knowledge about their cultural background and a greater appreciation of racial diversity. Many participants have formed closer ties with other people born in Vietnam, most notably other adoptees; most returned to visit Vietnam. The thesis concludes that those adoptees who were able to develop an understanding of the Vietnamese and other backgrounds to their complex identities, tended to be more integrated as adults than those who either rejected or were unable to come to terms with their Vietnamese ancestry.

This study investigates how immigration models of the post Second World War assimilation policy, subsequently replaced by the multiculturalism ideology, have been empirically perceived by Australian immigrants. Questions point to if modern day migrancy and immigration have transformed the ways in which the concepts are currently understood. Of particular interest is: are settlement, citizenship and assimilation an end point, or should migrancy be recast as a fluid phenomenon, privileged by greater freedom of ‘belonging’ afforded by transnationalism? Answers to these questions fill gaps in sociological knowledge. The social research project is anchored in a case study of mainly first but not excluding second and a few third generation Greek and Cypriot Australian immigrant respondents. Data gathering employs qualitative inquiry, applying a Mixed Method approach grounded in the Grounded Theory Method. Fieldwork data are generated by in-depth interviewing of respondents, and interpretation of their statements. Their verbal testimonials are analysed using the conceptually clustered matrix. In this approach text is assembled, sub-clustered, and broken into semiotic segments, permitting the researcher to contrast, compare, analyse, and recognise patterns. The strength of employing the Conceptually Clustered Matrix is that it serves the “conceptual coherence” of the data in this study’s single case inquiry. This study reveals how transnationalism has changed presumptions embedded in the policies of assimilation and multiculturalism. In assimilation, supposition of permanent settlement, and the question of ‘belonging’ has been resolved by the immigrants succeeding in effectively transplanting the former ethnic “I”, into becoming a new Australian “me”. Subsequent multiculturalism provides immigrants options in choosing their self-identity within the society at large and accepting that migrant minorities can subsist in discrete ethnic conglomerates clustered within the compass of wider Australian society. The contribution of this thesis to the body of sociological knowledge is that it investigated presently not or under-investigated scholarship how migrants perceive their diaspora existence, redefined by daily practices among migrants. In a transnational context, the research has focused on exploring post-immigration identity and ‘belonging’. Its findings have identified changing perception of migrancy and immigration, framed in terms of the core research question generated in this thesis, namely “after settlement, then what?

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No description available.

This thesis explores the desirability of Australia???s State museums to be inclusive of diverse cultures. In keeping with a cultural studies approach, and a commitment to social action, emphasis is placed upon enhancing the ability of State museums to fulfil obligations and expectations imposed upon them as modern collecting institutions in a culturally diverse nation. By relating the desirability and ability of State museums to attaining social justice in a multicultural Australia through broadening the concept of Australia???s heritage, the thesis is firmly situated within post-colonial discourse. The thesis analyses State multicultural, heritage, and museum legislation, in New South Wales, Victoria, and Queensland, with regard to State museums as agents of cultural policy. Results from a survey, Greeks and Museums, conducted amongst Australia???s Greeks in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane, reveal an anomaly between their museum-going habits and the perception of those habits as expressed by government policies promoting the inclusion of Australians of a non-English speaking background in the nation???s cultural programmes. In exploring the issue of inclusiveness, the thesis highlights the need for cultural institutions to shift the emphasis away from audience development, towards greater audience participation. The thesis outlines an initiative-derived Queensland Model for establishing an inclusive relationship between museums and communities, resulting in permanent, affordable, and authoritative collections, while simultaneously improving the museums??? international reputation and networking capabilities. By using the example of one of the nation???s non-indigenous communities, and drawing upon material obtained through the survey, and a catalogue containing photographs and lists of Greek textile collections found in the Powerhouse Museum (MAAS), Sydney, the National Gallery of Victoria and the Immigration Museum, Melbourne, the Queensland Art Gallery and the Queensland Museum, Brisbane, as well as collections owned by private individuals, the thesis focuses on the role played by museums in constructing social cohesion and inclusiveness.

Bibliography: leaves 330-350. / vi, 350 leaves ; 30 cm. / Title page, contents and abstract only. The complete thesis in print form is available from the University Library. / The aim of this study is to carry out a qualitative investigation of the experience of cultural interaction from the perspective of members of the mainstream group in Australia. Memoir methodology is adopted as the means of gaining an in-depth understanding of individual respondents' experience of cultural interaction and their attitudes towards cultural pluralism. The memoirs are analysed in relation to two questions, relating to the writers' experience of cultural interaction and their attitudes to cultural pluralism. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Adelaide, Dept. of Education, 1997

This study investigates how immigration models of the post Second World War assimilation policy, subsequently replaced by the multiculturalism ideology, have been empirically perceived by Australian immigrants. Questions point to if modern day migrancy and immigration have transformed the ways in which the concepts are currently understood. Of particular interest is: are settlement, citizenship and assimilation an end point, or should migrancy be recast as a fluid phenomenon, privileged by greater freedom of ‘belonging’ afforded by transnationalism? Answers to these questions fill gaps in sociological knowledge. The social research project is anchored in a case study of mainly first but not excluding second and a few third generation Greek and Cypriot Australian immigrant respondents. Data gathering employs qualitative inquiry, applying a Mixed Method approach grounded in the Grounded Theory Method. Fieldwork data are generated by in-depth interviewing of respondents, and interpretation of their statements. Their verbal testimonials are analysed using the conceptually clustered matrix. In this approach text is assembled, sub-clustered, and broken into semiotic segments, permitting the researcher to contrast, compare, analyse, and recognise patterns. The strength of employing the Conceptually Clustered Matrix is that it serves the “conceptual coherence” of the data in this study’s single case inquiry. This study reveals how transnationalism has changed presumptions embedded in the policies of assimilation and multiculturalism. In assimilation, supposition of permanent settlement, and the question of ‘belonging’ has been resolved by the immigrants succeeding in effectively transplanting the former ethnic “I”, into becoming a new Australian “me”. Subsequent multiculturalism provides immigrants options in choosing their self-identity within the society at large and accepting that migrant minorities can subsist in discrete ethnic conglomerates clustered within the compass of wider Australian society. The contribution of this thesis to the body of sociological knowledge is that it investigated presently not or under-investigated scholarship how migrants perceive their diaspora existence, redefined by daily practices among migrants. In a transnational context, the research has focused on exploring post-immigration identity and ‘belonging’. Its findings have identified changing perception of migrancy and immigration, framed in terms of the core research question generated in this thesis, namely “after settlement, then what?