Cultures of complaint

An ethnography of rural racial rivalry

Bibliographic Data

ID2398867
AuthorsGillian K Cowlishaw (University of Technology Sydney), Gillian Cowlishaw (University of Technology Sydney, corresponding author)
Year2006
Volume42
Issue4
Pages429-445
Publication date2006-12-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal of Sociology (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1440-7833 • E-ISSN: 1741-2978
PublisherSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1177/1440783306069999
OpenAlexW2172113447
LanguageEN
Citations received6
References cited16

This 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

Complaint · Criminology · Derogation · Dismissal · Ethnography · Ideology · Indigenous · Orthodoxy · Political science · Politics · Racism · Rivalry · Sociology · Anthropological Studies and Insights · Anthropology · Gender Studies · History · Indigenous Health, Education, and Rights · Law · Qualitative Research Methods and Ethics

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