Events
Seminars
Dr Farida Fozdar: The flag and Australian identity: Exclusionary nationalism in the Aussie car flags debate.
Date: 1 June 2012
Time: 1.00 pm
Venue: Murphy Bldg, MY305
This paper reports the results of research indicating a relationship between the flying of the Australian flag on cars for Australia Day and forms of exclusionary nationalism (in the form of racist attitudes). Findings of a survey of car flag flyers and non-car flag flyers are reported (n=513), which show clear differences in levels of patriotism and attitudes to racial and religious diversity. The paper goes on to consider the ways in which a press release about the research was taken up by the media and the public. Using both sources of data, it is argued that there is some evidence that the Australian flag is seen by some as an ethno-nationalist symbol, rather than a representation of a more civic form of nationalism. Implications for the future of Australian multiculturalism are considered.Farida Fozdar (aka Tilbury) completed her PhD at Victoria University of Wellington, and took up a position in Sociology and Community Development at Murdoch University in 2003. In 2011 she received an ARC Future Fellowship which she took up at University of Western Australia.