Abstract
Multiculturalism is a concept that is hotly contested and deployed in a wide range of discourses with different meanings, different strategic purposes, and with different effects. This paper explores the strategic use of multiculturalism to promote Australia, and its largest most globalized city, Sydney, in the 1990s. The paper begins by examining official policies around multiculturalism in Australia, the ambivalent responses to these within and outside of government arenas, and the more recent shift in government focus to the economic significance of multiculturalism. The paper then looks at how multicultural discourses have been deployed by the Australian and New South Wales governments. “Entrepreneurial multiculturalism” draws on multicultural discourses of a number of kinds, for example: the demographic-descriptive; Australia’s strategic proximity to Asian markets; the exotic; and images of harmony to sell Australia and syndey. In the political climate of the late twentieth century, however, the period of the texts discussed here, the use of multicultural discourses as a form of national and city promotion, particularly images of harmony, sat uncomfortably in the wider political scene which was much more ambivalent about, and sometimes hostile to, the diversity of Australia's population. As such entrepreneurial multiculturalism could be argued to be a strategic political move on the part of both the federal and state governments at this time.
Résumé
Le multiculturalisme est un concept très controversé qui est déployé dans une gamme étendue de discours et employé selon diverses significations, pour des objectifs stratégiques différents et avec des effets variés. Cet article porte sur l'emploi stratégique du multiculturalisme pour promouvoir l'Australie et sa ville la plus importante et la plus mondialisée, Sydney, pendant les années 1990. Nous nous penchons d'abord sur les politiques officielles relatives au multiculturalisme en Australie, les réactions ambivalentes à celles-ci dans les milieux gouvernementaux et non gouvernementaux, et le changement d'orientation récent dans les préoccupations du gouvernement vers la signification économique du multiculturalisme. Nous portons ensuite notre attention sur la façon dont les discours sur le multiculturalisme ont été déployés par les gouvernements de l'Australie et de la Nouvelle-Galles Du Sud. Une démarche d'entreprise appliquée au multiculturalisme (le «multiculturalisme entrepreneurial») puise dans divers discours sur le multiculturalisme tels le discours démographique-descriptif, la proximité stratégique de l'Australie aux marchés asiatiques, l'exotique, et des images reflétant l'harmonie pour faire passer la rampe à l'Australie et à Sydney. Toutefois, compte tenu de la conjoncture politique de la fin du 20e siècle et de la période pendant laquelle ont été produits les textes dont nous discutons, les discours axés sur le multiculturalisme et ayant comme but de faire valoir son pays ou sa ville (surtout en présentant des images reflétant l'harmonie) ont été plutôt mal reçus dans l'échiquier politique étendu qui s'est avéré beaucoup plus ambivalent, voire hostile, face à la diversité de la population australienne. Ainsi, nous sommes en mesure de maintenir que le «multiculturalisme entrepreneurial» constitute une démarche politique stratégique de la part du gouvernement fédéral et des administrations des états.
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Murphy, P., O’Brien, B. & Watson, S. Selling Australia, selling Sydney: The ambivalent politics of entrepreneurial multiculturalism. Int. Migration & Integration 4, 471–498 (2003). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12134-003-1011-5
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12134-003-1011-5