Place - Defending and the denial of racism
- Publication Type:
- Journal Article
- Citation:
- Australian Journal of Social Issues, 2014, 49 (1), pp. 67 - 85
- Issue Date:
- 2014-01-01
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| Filename | Description | Size | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| OCC-93141_AM.pdf | Accepted Manuscript Version | 795.16 kB |
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This paper introduces the concept of place - defending and articulates its implications for locality - based social policy. Place-defending is the protection of one's local area from unfavourable assessments, in this case of being labelled or perceived as a racist space. Place attachment and identifications with place are drivers of place - defending. Person - place relationships and their implications for locality - based social policies have not yet received sufficient consideration in the literature - a significant oversight considering the current policy focus in Australia and the United Kingdom on locality - based social policy. In this study of local anti - racism in the Australian context, place - defending involved the denial of racism and performances of place that reproduced the discourse of tolerance. Print media coverage of the release of national data on racism was analysed alongside a series of interviews with individuals working on anti - racism at both local and state/federal levels. Four tools of place - defending are discussed: direct action to defend place; spatial deflections; use of minority group members to discredit claims of racism; and critiques of those who make claims about racism. The tools of place - defending operated to construct localities as places of tolerance, potentially undermining the case for anti - racism.
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