Seminar Series: Abstract

09:30
September 02 2009
Seminar Room A

Walking while Leb: The racial politics of movement in local spaces
Greg Noble (University of Western Sydney)

Access to public space and mobility are seen as fundamental to a democratic state, yet these are often seen primarily in symbolic terms. This paper draws on a research project on incidents of racial vilification experienced by Arabic-speaking and Muslim Australians since September, 11, 2001, and on an analysis of the Cronulla riots of 2005 - to explore the affective and spatial regulation of national belonging for many Australians of 'Middle Eastern' backgrounds. Drawing a parallel with the 'driving while black' phenomenon, it examines the ways in which everyday spaces of living have become places of incivility, harassment and exclusion. The capacity to experience forms of cultural citizenship is shaped by inclusion within or exclusion from local and nationally significant public spaces. The power to claim national belonging is intimately linked to the capacity to inhabit local spaces, to interact and move within and through local spaces. These spaces are also marked as 'national space' whose control is a matter of struggle and exclusion. The consequences of racial vilification are that certain groups are thwarted in their ability to move through these spaces, and therefore lose the capacity to navigate across social worlds and to develop civic attachments.