Review of Bill Cope and Mary Kalantzis, 'A Place in the Sun: Re-creating the Australian Way of Life'. Sydney: Harper Collins Publishers, 2000. Pp.vii, 389. Paper. ISBN 0 7322 6522 3. R.R.P. $AU 22.95.

Abstract

William Cobbett (1763-1835) in his 'Rural Rides' (1830) reported on the state of England at a time of realised momentous change and of challenge to older orders of things. A similar task is now attempted, but for Australia, on the eve of a century of Federation, after half a century of mass immigration, and at the pivotal Janus-like entry into a new millennium. The compilers-shapers of this sprawling and provocative report on the state of the nation are Dr. Bill Cope, Director of the Centre for Workplace Communication and Culture, a research and training centre affiliated with RMIT, and Professor Mary Kalantzis, Dean of the Faculty of Education, language and Community Services at RMIT University (Melbourne). This multi-faceted and peculiarly grass roots report begins with a 'prologue' filled with all the doubts and fears that marked the last years of the old century, a time of "... Pauline Hanson days ... 'political correctness' ... nobody seemed to be feeling good ... The litany of complaint seemed relentless, with no optimistic alternative, no relief; only vindication and martyrdom, victimisation and demonisation. Multiculturalism, we were being told, creates ghettoes. Indigenous people are dividing the nation ... We are being swamped by Asians ... our water is undrinkable. The country is falling apart." Yet, as it said: "These are questions and claims that create fear and distrust. But we need answers, not accusations; understanding, not glib assertions." (pp. 1-2)