Young People and Intercultural Sociality after Cronulla

ABSTRACT

This paper considers how the Cronulla riots have shaped some popular directions in theory and practice regarding young people’s intercultural relations that are primarily focused on social cohesion, harmony and cultural understanding. Drawing on research we have undertaken post-Cronulla with young people in some of Australia’s most diverse (and disadvantaged) neighbourhoods, we suggest that this approach to improving youth interculturality does not adequately account for the complex forms of sociality that exist in multicultural youth cultures. We illustrate how routine and intimate intercultural engagements are interwoven with forms of discord, some of it racialised and racist, but not always destructive of simultaneous positive fellow-feeling. We argue for greater attention to the multiple lines along which youth affiliate, connect and also differentiate themselves that inform their practices of inclusion and exclusion beyond lack of cultural understanding.

KEYWORDS:

• Multicultural youth studies
• young women
• intercultural relations
• multiculturalism
• everyday multiculturalism
• sociality
• racism
• conviviality
• class
• working-class
• disadvantaged youth

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributors

Anita Harris is a Research Professor in the Institute for Citizenship and Globalisation at Deakin University, Australia. She researches in the area of youth citizenship, youth cultures and participatory practice in changing times. She is completing an Australian Research Council Future Fellowship investigating intercultural relations amongst youth in multicultural cities in Australia and around the world (‘Young People and Social Inclusion in the Multicultural City’) and has recently undertaken a major project on ‘The Civic Life of Young Muslim Australians’. She is the author of several books in youth studies, most recently Young People and Everyday Multiculturalism (2013, Routledge New York).

Melinda Herron is a doctoral student in the Department of Social and Political Sciences at the University of Melbourne. Her research explores how young people configure racism and conviviality in a working-class, culturally diverse high school. Before joining the University of Melbourne, Melinda specialised in intercultural communication, conducting research, curriculum development and teaching in Australia and overseas.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Australian Research Council [grant number FT100100163].