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Since at least the 1970s Australia has, as a nation, officially declared itself to be ‘multicultural’ and has adopted ‘multiculturalism’ as the approach to its increasingly culturally diverse population. Since then, multiculturalism in Australia, as elsewhere in the western world, has come under sustained critique by both those who think it has ‘gone too far’, and those who think it has ‘not gone far enough’. These critiques have left many wondering whether multiculturalism is still an appropriate and valuable response to cultural diversity for both governments/the state and the populations who contend with cultural diversity as part of their everyday lives. This study attempts to move beyond these critiques and proposes a local place-bound study as one way in which we might further our understandings of multiculturalism in the Australian context and capture some of the complexities elided by these nonetheless useful critiques. The study draws on both textual and ethnographic research material, and employs discursive and deconstructive techniques of analysis to achieve this. The population of the regional centre of Griffith in the Riverina region of New South Wales is culturally diverse. Griffith is located within Wiradjuri country and became home to large numbers of non-Indigenous people after the establishment of the Murrumbidgee Irrigation Scheme in the 1910s. It continues to be a destination of choice for immigrants, largely because of the availability of work, particularly in agricultural and related industries. The study reveals that in Griffith multiculturalism is generated, negotiated and performed at the local level, in and through the everyday lives of local people, as much as it is through government intervention. It is part of the lived experience of people in culturally diverse Griffith. The kind of multiculturalism they live can be seen to be positive, pervasive and dynamic and it is something that is deemed to be of great value. They have embraced the idea of multiculturalism and of their community as multicultural to the extent that it is an important part of how they see themselves. While Australian Federal Government conceptions of multiculturalism clearly inform local discourses, with all the limitations this can bring, the conservative understandings articulated federally are made redundant by local manifestations of multiculturalism in Griffith, where there is a desire to both foster and further multiculturalism. The case of Griffith suggests that there is hope for multiculturalism and that multiculturalism can still inform an ethical mode of engagement for people from diverse cultural and ethnic traditions. Australia, however, also has an Indigenous past and present and this continues to pose the ultimate challenge to and for multiculturalism, including in Griffith. / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

This thesis is a genealogy which traces changes to the discourse of Australian citizenship. These changes were traced in the Australia Day (i.e., January 26) and January 27 editions of The Sydney Morning Herald (SMH) and The Sun Herald (SH) from 1946 – 2007. The dissertation used Foucault’s (1980; 1991a; 1991d; 1991e; 1998; 2002a; 2006b) genealogy supplemented with his archaeological method to provide an analysis of the discourse of Australian citizenship. The analysis was conducted by creating an archive of newspaper texts that related to Australian citizenship discourse. This archive represents the body of knowledge about citizenship as published in the specified print media and reflects the systems of thought that circulated the discourse at particular points in time. The archived newspaper texts related to Australian citizenship discourse contain traces of the social, political, cultural and economic beliefs and values of Australian citizens. The analysed texts were found in headlines, reports, editorials, opinion pieces, annotated photographs and letters to the editor that made-up the day-to-day history of the Australia Day editions. The texts that were produced in this narration in the SMH have provided data in the form of specific language use that defines the discourse of citizenship over the 62 year period. The language of these texts as reported in the print media represents the understandings of citizenship at particular times and also the discursive responses to contingent factors conditioning citizenship discourse including globalisation, localisation and neo-liberalism. The research links with Foucault’s (1980; 1991a; 1991d; 1991e; 1998; 2002a; 2006b) findings that the analysis of discourse is fundamental for understanding the nature of reality. This reality reported in this dissertation indicates a discourse that has changed and transformed over the analysed period of time. The discourse of citizenship has developed through the flow of rules and regulations that prohibit and permit what can and cannot be said, thought or spoken about citizenship at particular points in time. This form of normative thought, action and speech is culturally constructed and has been traced in the discourse through a mapping of specific language use related to understandings of citizenship. These types of knowledge constructions are artefacts of culture and reinforce existing power relations. This study has attempted to unmask these relations of power to question the rationality of the practices and experiences of Australian citizenship. The genealogical method allows for the distillation of citizenship discourse as a history of social and political truths as seen in the print media from 1946 – 2007. The genealogy of Australian citizenship presented in this dissertation lays bare the characteristic forms of power/knowledge manifested in the discourse over the post-World War Two period of Australian history to show systems of thought pertaining to citizenship. By doing so it shows that current citizenship practices are not the result of historical inevitabilities but rather the result of the interplay of contingencies. By emphasising citizenship in this way the thesis offers insights into how it can be refashioned to offer greater individual freedom through an understanding of the games of truth that are played throughout all levels of society. The manifestation of power/knowledge in the discourse is further evidence that citizens exist in relations of power. These manifestations produced five distinct thematic discursivities. I labelled them as, ‘The silencing of Aboriginal concerns 1946 – 1969, Authorised voices question the acceptance of poverty and racism 1969 – 1980, Relations of power between Aboriginal Australians and whites 1981 – 1988, Relations of power between Asian immigrants and whites 1989 – 1996, The struggle of cultural dominations 1997 – 2007’. In particular, a discontinuity was identified during the period Relations of power between Aboriginal Australians and whites 1981 – 1988. From this time in the discourse Indigenous Australians were permitted to criticise their treatment by whites. Subsequently this permission has become embedded in systems of thought. This thesis gives details of the products of the genealogical method related to the discourse of citizenship. It pinpoints the moments when individuals and social, cultural, economic and political groups played roles in the production, reproduction and transmission of truth from 1946 - 2007. Based on the products of the research it creates recommendations for minimising the potential dominations of social and political truths. It also suggests ways to re-think Australian citizenship to afford greater freedoms for individual thought, speech and action.

University of Macau / Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities / Department of Government and Public Administration

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Open University. BLDSC no. DX231423.

Originally presented as the author's thesis--Universität Osnabrück, 2005. / Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (M.A.), English--University of Central Oklahoma, 2009. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 87-91).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2001. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references. Available also from UMI Company.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of California, San Diego, 2004. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 157-168).

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Brown University, 2008. / Vita. Adviser: Karen Newman. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 225-251).