Cultures of complaint - An ethnography of rural racial rivalry

Cowlishaw, G

Cultures of complaint - An ethnography of rural racial rivalry

Cowlishaw, G

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Publisher:: Sage Publications Ltd
Publication Type:: Journal Article
Citation:: Journal of Sociology, 2006, 42 (4), pp. 429 - 445
Issue Date:: 2006-01

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Field	Value	Language
dc.contributor.author	Cowlishaw, G	en_US
dc.date.issued	2006-01	en_US
dc.identifier.citation	Journal of Sociology, 2006, 42 (4), pp. 429 - 445	en_US
dc.identifier.issn	1440-7833	en_US
dc.identifier.uri	http://hdl.handle.net/10453/5471
dc.description.abstract	The article was inspired by ethnographic observation of interaction, arguments and ideologies in Bourke, New South Wales, and the contrast with the nation's public debates. Whereas the prevailing national orthodoxy accords Aborigines the status of injured victims of history, local Whites claim present injury from these same victims. The former diagnosis tends towards a dismissal of rural whitefellas' complaints as 'redneck' racism, but the moral and political implications become more complicated and contentious the closer one gets to the lived realities of race relations. I argue that there is a symbolic rivalry about the contrasting moral worth of racial identities that are built around experiences of derogation and desperation. Finally I discuss two major weaknesses in our intellectual imaginations concerning the relationships between Australian citizens with Indigenous and immigrant origins.	en_US
dc.publisher	Sage Publications Ltd	en_US
dc.relation.ispartof	Journal of Sociology	en_US
dc.relation.isbasedon	10.1177/1440783306069999	en_US
dc.subject.classification	Sociology	en_US
dc.title	Cultures of complaint - An ethnography of rural racial rivalry	en_US
dc.type	Journal Article
utslib.citation.volume	4	en_US
utslib.citation.volume	42	en_US
utslib.for	1608 Sociology	en_US
utslib.for	1606 Political Science	en_US
utslib.for	2002 Cultural Studies	en_US
pubs.embargo.period	Not known	en_US
pubs.organisational-group	/University of Technology Sydney
pubs.organisational-group	/University of Technology Sydney/e-Press
pubs.organisational-group	/University of Technology Sydney/Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences
utslib.copyright.status	closed_access
pubs.consider-herdc	true	en_US
pubs.issue	4	en_US
pubs.volume	42	en_US

Abstract:

The article was inspired by ethnographic observation of interaction, arguments and ideologies in Bourke, New South Wales, and the contrast with the nation's public debates. Whereas the prevailing national orthodoxy accords Aborigines the status of injured victims of history, local Whites claim present injury from these same victims. The former diagnosis tends towards a dismissal of rural whitefellas' complaints as 'redneck' racism, but the moral and political implications become more complicated and contentious the closer one gets to the lived realities of race relations. I argue that there is a symbolic rivalry about the contrasting moral worth of racial identities that are built around experiences of derogation and desperation. Finally I discuss two major weaknesses in our intellectual imaginations concerning the relationships between Australian citizens with Indigenous and immigrant origins.

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http://hdl.handle.net/10453/5471