Theresa Petray

Protest 2.0: online interactions and Aboriginal activists

Social movements, like every other aspect of life, have become increasingly reliant on the internet for networking, information sharing and coalition building. This is the case even for disadvantaged groups with few resources and less capacity for utilizing computers and the internet. Aboriginal activists in Townsville have been slow to exert their presence on the web, but are gradually becoming savvy in the use of electronic networking in furthering their cause. They rely on listservs, blogs and, more recently, social networking sites to make their struggle known to a wide audience. In addition to the use of Web 2.0 to supplement ‘offline’ activism, there is a new form of ‘virtual’ activism emerging. The rise in ‘push-button activism’ increases the opportunities for everyday engagement with the state by social movement participants. However, it also changes the notion of participation as marches and demonstrations give way to electronic petitions and Facebook fan pages.

The Role of Horror and Dread in the Sacred Experience

In this article we seek to add to the debate/discussion into so called ‘Dark Tourism’. While a plethora of studies analyse this phenomenon through binaries such as authentic/inauthentic, we seek here to approach sites of historical death with a less sceptical view. Rather, like others, we understand tourist engagement with ‘dark’ sites as a source of ritualistic engagement. Using the Australian and New Zealand iconic place of Gallipoli in Turkey as a case study, this article will argue that the experience of pilgrims to sites of death is best discussed through the concept of the sacred. However, it is true that these sites can also disturb visitors. Thus, we propose that the often under-utilized figure in sociology, Hertz, can be consulted in order to comprehend how people negotiate places of ‘dark’ properties, particularly those with national or international heritage value.

A walk in the park: political emotions and ethnographic vacillation in activist research

Critically engaged activist research blends a theoretical approach towards power and resistance with a practical methodology for ethnographies of social movements. However, when undertaking this sort of research it can be easy to lose sight of critical analysis because of the political emotions that researchers share with activist participants. I was reminded of the need for critical reflection by a particularly jarring ethnographic moment: during a quiet, early morning walk through Brisbane’s Musgrave Park I became a witness in a murder investigation. This moment, and the aftermath of it, led me to critically analyse my own political emotions and those of my research participants. This article examines the role of activist researchers through the lens of my moment in the park. I argue that, while it is important to share political emotions with research participants, activist researchers must remain reflexive and critical of those emotions.

Teaching engagement: Reflections on sociological praxis

Sociology has a long history of engagement with social justice issues, and through concepts like the ‘sociological imagination’ we equip our students with the ability to think through, and ideally work to change, inequities. This engagement is under threat, however, from recent changes in the higher education sector that have shifted the focus from learning experiences to qualifications. There is little room within accreditation frameworks for social justice as an educational goal. This article will place these discussions of engagement and social justice as key outcomes of a sociology degree within the broader context of the changing higher education sector, and will explore how we teach students to use their sociological imaginations outside of the classroom. We recognise that this is a messy process, involving ambiguous learning spaces, sometimes conflicting institutional versions of ‘engagement’ and unforeseen outcomes. Nevertheless, ‘engaged’ sociology should encourage students to exercise their sociological imaginations and their own capacity to act as agents of social change.

Your Privilege Is Trending: Confronting Whiteness on Social Media

Social media activism provides an important space for dialogue and consciousness-raising. Racism, privilege, and inequalities have received considerable attention in social media discussions. #WhiteProverbs was one attempt to confront this issue, focusing particularly on White privilege. The tweets show how social media is a site where “serious games” are played, as agents are constrained by the “rules” but still able to make choices and push boundaries. This article explores the #WhiteProverbs tweets that came from Australian users to better understand how Australian social media users understand and confront whiteness. Through the use of humor, specifically irony and sarcasm, Twitter users identify a number of key ways that White privilege is reproduced, including justifications for racial inequality, questioning claims to racial differences, and constructing an exclusively White national identity.

Agency and structural constraints: Indigenous peoples and the Australian settler-state in North Queensland

In Australia, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples have long been subjected to attempts at extermination, exclusion, and assimilation, but continually resist these efforts. This history is woven through the social fabric of Australia. This paper is a single case study which looks at contemporary race relations in Townsville, Queensland, and describes current settler-colonial settings in terms of structure and agency. We focus primarily on agency as a strengths-based approach, but recognise the structural constraints Indigenous people face. Based on in-depth interviews and extensive fieldwork, we explore Indigenous perceptions of agency and constraints. Indigenous people have many ways to exercise agency, and our focus is on those who identify as activists and advocates. Participants expressed their capacity to undertake social action as high and varied in method, articulating agency as activism or advocacy. These agents view the state as both an enabler and a constraint, largely exclusionary of indigeneity. The settler-state only increases the capability for social action when it chooses to do so and has been and continues to be largely exclusionary of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. Significant to agents is the local context of Townsville as a racist city distant from political decision-making. Participants describe experiences of continuing covert or implicit racism and ‘active apathy’ held by the wider non-Indigenous community of Townsville. Despite these constraints, Indigenous agents creatively adapt such structures in order to exercise their agency.

‘This isn't a Black Issue’: Homophily and Diversity in Aboriginal Activism

This paper examines homophily and networking within Aboriginal activism in Townsville, North Queensland, Australia, focusing on the daily demonstrations held outside the manslaughter trial of Police Officer Senior-Sergeant Chris Hurley. At this trial, I witnessed a concerted effort by movement activists to avoid homophily (the principle that people who share certain characteristics will interact more often and more closely with one another than with those who are dissimilar) as activists framed the issue as ‘not a black issue’. I argue that this is in keeping with the social networking strategies of Indigenous movements in Australia: the nature of Australian history and present-day demographics have required Aboriginal people to rely heavily on diverse networks. In the Hurley trial case, I explore some of the ramifications of this framing tactic, based on media reportage and ethnographic description. I argue that whilst this tactic has positive effects, such as broadening support bases, it may compromise the articulated goals of the movement and reduce levels of collective identity. Finally, I draw conclusions for the wider dilemmas social movements face in choosing between bonding and bridging ties.

Challenging power and creating alternatives: Integrationist, anti-systemic and non-hegemonic approaches in Australian social movements:

Social movements are often discussed as either reformist or revolutionary, or, more often, as containing aspects of each of these approaches. However, whether a movement seeks integration into the existing system or seeks to overthrow that system and replace it, both approaches are hegemonic in nature. That is, they focus on totalising power structures. In this article, we explore another aspect of social movements: non-hegemonic approaches are those which prefigure alternatives at the local level. Non-hegemonic approaches are not oriented to power structures like states. Instead of actively resisting power, they bypass it or in some ways ignore it, as they create new ways of being. This approach may be limited in scope, and is unlikely to challenge the existence of inequalities at broad scales, but they can point to real examples of alternatives to existing power structures.

Coral Battleground? Re-examining the ‘Save the Reef’ campaign in 1960s Australia

Today’s campaigns to protect the Great Barrier Reef (GBR) have parallels with historical campaigns. With hindsight, we can more clearly see the way environmental discourses are socially constructed as well as their outcomes. This is potentially insightful for contemporary environmentalists. Beginning in 1967, the Save the Reef campaign had a thoughtful media strategy and sought to socially construct the GBR as a precious ecosystem that was at risk from exploitation. Histories of this campaign remember environmentalists as a weak, David-like contender in a fight against the powerful Goliath of the Queensland government and extractive industries. Using the historical archives as our primary data source, however, reveals that these memories are overstated and that environmentalists actually enjoyed widespread support. Moreover, we see that the GBR has no explicit ‘opponents’; even those who sought to exploit it came from a position of pragmatic conservationism, believing exploitation and conservation could coexist. The historical struggle over power and control of the GBR shows the positive outcomes which emerged from broad coalitions, as opposed to an adversarial and combative approach to activism.