SEMINAR: Anthropology Seminar Series

Are current shifts towards globalisation impacting Australian identity, and how is Australian-ness being framed in the public sphere? These questions steer this thesis and are considered through a different lens in each of the five articles that constitute its core. While much contemporary research on Australian identity explores the views of 'ordinary Australians' (these are collated and analysed in the first article), this research is situated in the public sphere to complement these studies by reflecting the cyclical relationship between 'elite' and 'ordinary' Australians. Two articles reveal the increasing significance of political and media discourse on national identity construction - one analyses online political campaign material, and another considers challenges by political cartoonists to the uses of 'Team Australia'. Another two articles explore examples of 'Othering' - asylum seekers and 'unAustralian-ness' - and the ways Australian-ness is framed in relation to these 'Others'. Methods used include frame analysis (primary) and thematic analysis (secondary), and Critical Discourse Analysis is relied on throughout to inform an understanding of rich textual analysis. Numerous findings arise from this thesis including: a continued reliance on 'traditional' myths of Australian-ness, such as mateship, a 'fair go' and the Anzac legend; an emerging fuzziness between ethno-national and civic identities; the pervasiveness of Australian identity in public discourse; and the way Australian-ness is being redefined by some to include both regional and global frames. Finally, the interaction of cosmopolitan and Australian identities is considered, and the ways in which cosmopolitan values may be included for some, but remain largely excluded from the public sphere.