Dialogisms: on language performativity and the location of multicultural difference in Melbourne

Abstract

The presentation will examine the ways in which the politically imbued concept of multiculturalism, along with that of cosmopolitanism and the concept of (cultural) diversity are affirmed or challenged by the everyday socio-political practices in Melbourne. It will trace the networks of exchanges and transactions and examine the meanings that boundaries have in forming the dialogues between people in a multicultural society. The presentation will focus on the comparison of two marketplaces in Melbourne (Queen Victoria Market and Footscray Market) to discuss the interplay between national spaces and spaces of 'real diversity', major and minor languages, linearity and circularity of space and the notion of community. Both places will be examined in the context of the political multicultural discourse. The emphasis will be, however, on the possibility that places offer in terms of challenging the political multiculturalism and bring about the oppositional concepts that encourage us to talk about the social aspects of diversity