Abstract
The focus of Ocean to Outback is ‘cosmopolitanism’ in contemporary Australia. The book is a series of nine essays, by various authors, which explain cosmopolitanism in its current forms. It is divided into three sections: ‘Varieties of Cosmopolitanism’, ‘Cosmopolitan Tensions’ and ‘Cosmopolitan Encounters’.
In the first section, ‘Varieties of Cosmopolitanism’, Val Colic-Peisker views cosmopolitanism from an optimistic viewpoint. Colic-Peisker points out that cosmopolitanism means various things to various people. In Colic-Peisker’s eyes, the advance of cosmopolitanism – is a ‘civilising’ process, which involves a growing sensitivity to the presence of people around us, becoming more observant of them and having a more acute understanding of them. Keith Jacobs writes in the wake of the London transport bombings in 2005. Jacobs explains that he, like others, started to look for explanations. His first impulse was to locate the London attacks as a dimension of problematic relationships between the West and the Muslim world. The London bombings compel us to think about the fragility of our existence and our vulnerability. In the wake of the London bombings, cosmopolitanism is our greatest hope, because it requires us to recognize our connections. To Nikos Papastergiadis, cosmopolitanism means ‘cultural translation’. Globalization has made the act of contact with strangers and different cultures a routine feature of everyday life. In the world of today, in order to feel an individual sense of moral connectedness and to be able to organize collective modes of solidarity, there must be an attendant mode for comprehending and evaluating cultural similarities, and differences.
In the second section, ‘Cosmopolitan Tensions’, Nicole Asquith and Scott Poynting discuss ‘anti-cosmopolitanism’ in Sydney’s Cronulla beach riots in December 2005. Cosmopolitanism involves an ethics of hospitality, or at least of accepting the stranger without hostility. ‘Anti-cosmopolitanism’ therefore, may be defined, as a reaction to these principles and practices; it closes off openness to the other, and to difference. Anti-cosmopolitanism emphasizes incompatibility, rejects a moral community with the other and adopts an attitude of hostility. Linn Miller and Jeff Malpas, also discuss the riots, at Sydney’s Cronulla beach and claim that the events that took place at Cronulla on that day in December 2005 were being played out between the cosmopolitan and the parochial. The riots bought into view a complex web of relations between identity, community and place, and demonstrated the strength of those bonds, and the extent to which they will be defended, against perceptions of threat. Greg Noble gives an example of the Granny Smith Festival in cosmopolitan Bennelong, with its historic ‘Anglo’ origins and the presence of people from migrant backgrounds. The people can be seen selling their wares, or cooking traditional foods in stalls, and participating in a vast array of events at the festival, such as local arts and crafts, and school performances. Noble, sees the festival as one marked, by the presence of cultural diversity, and of cosmopolitanism.
In the third and final section, ‘Cosmopolitan Encounters’, Ashley Carruthers states that the possibility of Australian multiculturalisms and cosmopolitanisms that cross minority/minority cultural boundaries is sometimes recognized in the literature but tends not to form the focus of research. Carruthers looks at minority communities that may interface with each other more readily, frequently and skillfully than with the host society. He explores this possibility through the Indochinese communities of western Sydney. Jesse Shipway spends some time delving into what the term ‘cosmopolitanism’ actually means to people. Shipway looks at the idea of the cosmopolis versus the township, and the open cosmopolitan society versus the closed provincial culture. He then takes us to his hometown of Hobart, and gives us a descriptive view of its cosmopolitanism. Shipway proposes the concept, of ‘cosmopolitan contamination’ and its disorder, which seems to be part of the cosmopolitan configuration, because of the felt effects of unwanted change inflicted on townships and provincial locations in the name of cosmopolitan progress. Finally, Mary Zournazi, gives an account of football fever in mid 2004, in the post-9/11 environment. She gives an overview of the UEFA football championships and the final between Greece and Portugal. Zournazi describes the transformation of Marrickville and Petersham, and the experience of a welcome spirit of love and joy in local cosmopolitanism.
Ocean to Outback: Cosmopolitanism in Contemporary Australia is a diverse look at cosmopolitanism. All the chapters relate to cosmopolitanism within Australia. While the book as a whole is not uncritical of cosmopolitanism and of more general cosmopolitan tendencies, it does attempt a rethinking of the cosmopolitan, and provides some new views of the concept, in contemporary Australia. Reference is made to theorists such as: Ulrich Beck, of ‘risk’ society fame and theorist of ‘second modernity’, ‘reflexive modernization’, and his new theory, rooted in the concept of cosmopolitanism; Ghassan Hage, a high-profile contributor to debates on multiculturalism and inter-cultural relations, particularly in Australia; Edward Said, an influential cultural critic, best known for his work on Orientalism; and David Harvey, a leading social theorist of international standing. The strength of Ocean to Outback is its diversity in the ways in which the subject matter has been addressed. Each of the different authors has their own unique perspective, which makes this book all the more interesting. The book will appeal to an academic audience interested in the cosmopolitan concept. There have been articles written which relate to cosmopolitanism in other parts of the world, but little has been written about the subject in Australia. This book will go towards filling that gap in the literature