[csaa-forum] Re: csaa-forum Digest, Vol 16, Issue 33

[::az::]

Hi John,

Thanks for your reminder about the original point of departure for the 
discussion. I know I responded to your post, but I was also clear about 
responding to a particular tone in the discussion -- and, more importantly, 
the framing of the discussion. I didn't mean to single you out!

> It may interest you to know that the move to
> catagorise different forms of cultural studies
> practices according to geography are not unique,
> and can be found, to cite one example, Toby
> Miller's A Companion to Cultural Studies where
> you'll find a number of other writers, including
> Graeme Turner, writing about this in a section
> called "Part II: Places".

Well, there's no harm in distinguishing particular kinds of work according 
to geography. Geography and place are both obviously very important. But the 
phrase "Australian cultural studies" means something more than geography, I 
think. It also denotes a particular way of imagining what 'Australia' is and 
that entity's relationship to other places. If, with a couple of exceptions, 
people have talked about Australia's relationship to the larger 'centres', 
the US, Europe and UK, as being mostly formative of what Australian cultural 
studies might be, it seems fair to point out the gaps in that formulation.

> I do not speak of how cultural studies is
> practiced in India, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Spain or
> Portugal, or South Africa, because I have no
> experience of working in those places. If you
> wish to articulate your experiences of the places
> where you have worked, then do so. I promise I
> will not regard it as diminishing of the places
> you speak about.

Forgive me if I don't quite grasp what you mean when you talk about 
'diminishing'. I'm definitely not trying to prove that people in 'other' 
places do things differently: that seems rather obvious. Designating 
national cultural studies practices or models that happen in 'other' places 
doesn't work, either. The point I was making is closer to home -- within 
'Australia' there are elsewheres. People *here* are not at home under 
nationalising frameworks -- either in disciplinary or working practices 
within cultural studies, etc, or in daily life.

Cheers
Aren