Floating lives : cultural citizenship and the limits of diaspora

Cultural citizenship may, in the simplest terms, be taken to mean a certain 'fit' or compatibility between the cultural attributes of an individual or group and those of the society in which they live. It is a complex concept, taking in rights, responsibilities and competencies as well as the more intangible issues of identity and belonging which have been the subject of intense debates within cultural studies in the last decade. In the case of diasporic or transnational peoples, it is further complicated by the fact of their multiple and unstable cultural and/or civic allegiances (to home and host nations in the first instance, but frequently also to the cultural space of diaspora itself).

This essay examines recent life stories by Chinese Australians: Clara Law's film Floating Life (1996) and two novellas by Liu Guande and Huangfu Jun, published together in English under the title Bitter Peaches and Plums (1995). Focusing on the diversity of experience evoked by notions of cultural belonging, it argues against the prevalent tendency within diaspora studies to engage in a rhetoric of cultural essentialism. The literatures of diaspora deserve to be read as documents of unique and complex cultural experiences rather than mere illustrations of archetypes

Postdeconstruction-reconstruction of journals as a methodological solution for the postmodern researcher

Many in the postmodern era recognise the subjectivity of the research process and in doing so seek to dismantle the traditional barrier between the researcher and the researched. How may the standpoint of this research subject be incorporated? How may this be implemented in practical terms? And how may this be analysed without theoretical recourse to essentialism? This paper proposes a new application of journalling to solve these methodological dilemmas drawing on a wider research project that investigates how practitioners conceptualise and enact policy reform. Responses to related postmodern methodological dilemmas and solutions will be invited from conference discussants.

lntercultural hermeneutics and the cross-cultural subject

The paper critically engages with contemporary theories of cross-cultural understanding and cross-cultural subjectivity found in the areas of intercultural hermeneutics, intercultural social theory and the discourse on the stranger. Drawing on Gadamerian hermeneutics the paper takes some preliminary steps in formulating an alternative conception of the in-between subject and cross-cultural interpretation that incorporates the ambivalence of boundaries, the enabling dimension of essentialism and acknowledges the role that fore-meanings and fore-structures have on cross-cultural understanding. In contrast to existing theories I conclude that the cross-cultural subject is situated within the intercultural encounter rather than dwelling above it.

New online ethnicities and the politics of representation

The paper interrogates the literature on online cultural and religious identities through a critical engagement of Stuart Hall's work on new ethnicity and regimes of representation. It suggests that this literature conflates Hall's notion of ‘new ethnicity’ with one that argues that online cultural and religious identities are ‘new’ because of transnational and global processes, the pervasiveness of computer-mediated communication and the global mobility of immigrants. Thus, current research on online ethnic and religious identities underestimates the complexity of Hall's concept and to highlight this complexity we ponder the extent to which new online ethnicities – as expressed in the current literature – reflect, construct or renegotiate so-called offline ethnicities. The paper concludes that online ethnic subjectivities, while providing alternative representations to counteract the dominant racist discourse within host societies, still reflect mimic essentialist voices.

Architecture, identity and cultural sustainability in contemporary Southeast Asian cities

Distinctive architecture, which once served to identify peoples and places, has now, across the world, been subject to the standardising forces of history. Built environments still reflect the conceptual, spatial and physical construction of communities, though straightforward correlations between particular forms of architecture, places and people can no longer be taken for granted. This article explores these notions through discussion of several Southeast Asian examples, seeing how the relationship between architecture and culture might be framed by each of them, and then how definitions of culture might be differently expressed depending on each context. The first context is the village. Here, recent buildings are produced within a traditional, rural culture, generally without recourse to architects. Indigenous symbolism is overlaid, but not necessarily subsumed, by imported typologies and ideologies. The second context is urban and more formalised and involves self-conscious architectural attempts to straddle tradition and modernity, as well as notions of broader collective identity. The third context is one of a more diffused globalisation. Issues of conservation and heritage are complicated by the imperial or colonial histories of many urban environments, as well as by the pressures of economic development and population growth. In cultural terms, however, it is the life of cities that is foregrounded here. This disparate collection of architectural projects and agendas reflects a region where the forces of essentialism and fragmentation continue to be in creative tension (Ashraf 2005).

Development of the reflexive antiracism scale – indigenous

Purpose – Reflexive Antiracism is an approach to antiracism that seeks to avoid the limitations of essentialism and negative emotional reactions through a focus on racialisation (a concept that encompasses both racism and antiracism) as well as the formation and maintenance of racialised identities. This paper aims to outline the construction and validation of a scale to measure this novel theoretical construct: the Reflexive Antiracism Scale-Indigenous (RAS-I).

Design/methodology/approach – In the context of a cultural training course focused on Indigenous peoples in Australia, 20 items to assess attitudes were developed along with four hypothetical scenarios designed to assess behavioural intentions in specific situations. The survey formed by these items and scenarios was piloted to assess test-retest, concurrent and construct validity as well as item endorsement and internal reliability.

Findings – Findings suggest that an 11-item scale based on this survey forms a valid and reliable measure of Reflexive Antiracism. Further research and applications are discussed.

Originality/value – This paper will prompt further exploration of Reflexive Antiracism as a concept that can be applied in a range of settings where a more nuanced understanding and approach to antiracism may be of benefit. Being aware of their position within a society that is racialised will allow antiracists to be reflexive (and realistic) about their ability as individuals to achieve antiracist ideals while continuing to strive towards them.

Reflexive antiracism : a novel approach to diversity training

This article introduces the concept of reflexive antiracism as a response to two major critiques of antiracism theory and praxis: the dangers of essentialism and the elicitation of counter-productive emotional reactions. The article explores these critiques as they apply to two broad approaches to diversity training: cultural awareness and antiracism. Reflexive antiracism offers an alternative to existing approaches through a focus on racialisation and the formation and maintenance of racialised identities in particular. An emphasis on the paradoxes of racialisation and the contingencies of minority and white antiracist identities can promote a realistic and productive understanding of diversity training that may avoid the pitfalls of existing approaches. To conclude, an outline of factors that contribute to reflexive antiracism praxis are presented, drawing on examples from an existing diversity training course.

Ulrich Beck's cosmopolitanisation thesis : a philosophical critique

For Ulrich Beck, the Enlightenment project aimed to subordinate religious truth to the authority of reason in questions of the true and the good, and thus to replace religious conflict with peace. Although the ‘First Modernity’ delivered risks like climate change rather than progress like peace, Beck discerns signs of hope for the Enlightenment project in the processes of individualisation and cosmopolitanisation. I argue, first, that Beck exaggerates his claims about the relative influence of tradition on religion and reason; second, that his cosmopolitanisation thesis fails to identify triggers for a paradigm conversion; third, that the thesis relies upon essentialist commitments of the kind he condemns; and finally, that only the classicist view of essentialism is vulnerable to his attack.

Performing erasure

This presentation examines my abstract films from my ongoing 16mm and digital experimental film practice, e.g.: 223(1985, 6 mins), Migraine Particles (1984, 12 mins) , Understanding Science (1992, 18 mins), Rote Movie (1994, 12 mins), Trauma Dream (2002, 7 mins) and Analog Stress (2004, 12 mins) as expressing a process of erasure, a method employed to construct a gutted and marooned identity. It rereads the essentialism of Modernism as laying bare the mechanics of erasure and denial and Peter Gidal’s anti-illusionist ‘Materialist Film’ as a practice outlining the structure of trauma, and the nature of traumatic memory, described as dissociative in Pierre Janet's early work.

The cosmopolitan stranger

The chapter contributes to a critical discussion of cosmopolitanism by examining the affinities between the cosmopolitan subject and the stranger as conceptualized in the social sciences. The similarities between these two social actors are manifested in the cosmopolitan outlook/disposition espoused in contemporary versions of cosmopolitanism. Drawing on the work of Simmel and Bauman, the chapter outlines the major characteristics of the stranger and, through an investigation of various cosmopolitan thinkers, we delineate a cosmopolitan world-view. This comparison leads to my central thesis that a new social type has emerged which can be categorized as the cosmopolitan stranger. The chapter demonstrates how cosmopolitan strangers develop a more perceptive, broader and keener insight than those confined to either a particular or universal perspective. As a consequence of this enlightened view, these new social actors undermine binary logic and the essentialism underpinning ‘standpoint epistemology’. We begin with an investigation of the stranger in sociology, and then provide a brief examination of the major attributes of the cosmopolitan disposition and conclude with a critical assessment of the cosmopolitan stranger.

Gidal's materialist film

This paper belatedly re-evaluates Peter Gidal’s texts Materialist Film (1989) and Structural Film Anthology (1976) for contemporary use within digital media moving image production. Materialist film’s direct methods reproduce Abstract Expressionism’s essentialism in painting and sculpture and can be related to Samuel Beckett’s minimalism, of which Gidal has also written. Gidal’s texts are recounted in relation to the splitting of the avant-garde in two by Peter Wollen in 1975, a move that subjugated materialist film in favour of an emergent feminist counter cinema.