Discursive Australia: Refugees, Australianness, and the Australian Public Sphere

Abstract

The Post to Come: an Outline of Post metaphysical Ethics (2005), and her current research turns around the ethico political possibilities and implications of contemporary European philosophy. Her most recent work is published in Philosophy Today and Symposium. Debbie Rodan lectures in the Media & Cultural Studies stream at Edith Cowan University. She has previously published on social and cultural identity formation. Current research projects include: examining the recurring discourses within the letters to the editor and how they underpin and ratify certain notions of being 'Australian'; and an analysis of the ways in which ethnic Hazara refugees from Afghanistan have been (re)presented in two Australian television programmes.

‘You can't have the struggle without the ugly fringe’ - Publicness in Australian National Imagination: Media representations of the Muslim demonstrations in Sydney in 2012’

“…These contingent sites of social struggles allow dominant and alternative social imaginaries to co-exist. As suggested previously, my analysis re-affirms the widely held view of scholars, such as Mummery and Rodan (2007) and Hartley and Green (2006) about the need to acknowledge the contingent sites of resistance and struggles in the public sphere in relation to Muslims in Australia. However, my analysis contributes to this debate, by unpacking the conditions that make discourse and counterpublics possible.…”

“…For instance, the Prime Minister and the New South Wales Police Commissioner made references to the behaviour of the rioters as unAustralian. Similar to the characterizations found in the research of Mummery and Rodan (2007) and Hartley and Green (2006), the discourse was about not engaging in 'rioting', 'respecting the laws', not abusing 'women' and children by letting them carry provocative placards/signs. More pertinently, it is about not behaving in such a way where 'a child is carrying a slogan encouraging murder'.…”

“…These interpretations, as Yasmeen (2007) suggests, extend the possibilities for partnership in the public sphere for Muslim women. Mummery and Rodan (2007) in their analysis of the letters to the editor and opinion pieces in the print media argue that binary constructions of Muslims are unhelpful because they fetishize and reproduce the politics of fear. This they assert has implications for representation of Muslims in the public sphere because it forecloses the possibility of accepting difference and engaging in the process of negotiation and discussion.…”

‘A Real Lesbian Wouldn't Touch a Bisexual With a Bargepole'

“…Robinson (2008) also notes talk about men used to differentiate (and therefore exclude) bisexual women. Mummery and Rodan (2007) identify this kind of move, in anti-immigration letters, as 'protectivism', whereby the incompatibility between what 'we' are and do, and 'them', is stressed as immutable. Ault (1994) found that (her sample of) lesbians defined bisexuals in male-identified terms, and that for them, 'bisexual women represent the phallus itself' (p. 119).…”

“…Though readers' letters have typically been considered in the context of newspapers or news magazines, previous research has repeatedly identified letters sections as sites for public opinion articulation, debate and development, and section editors approach their role with this function in mind (Hynds, 1991;Mummery & Rodan, 2007;Wahl-Jorgenson, 2002). In reality, the democratic capability of letters sections is limited by editorial conventions and equal access, among other factors -but this should not dim their discursive significance here, for several reasons.…”