Click the star to add/remove an item to/from your individual schedule.
You need to be logged in to avail of this functionality.
Log in
Accepted Paper:
Contingent belonging: the mundane vernaculars of making do in remote Australia
Cameo Dalley
(University of Melbourne)
Paper short abstract:
Non-Indigenous people are increasingly seen to occupy a precarious position in remote Australia, particularly where they are no longer able to sell their labour. A focus on what Ferguson has called the 'mundane vernaculars of making do', may provide a means through which to counter these discourses.
Paper long abstract:
Non-Indigenous people are increasingly seen to occupy a precarious position in remote Australia. This is especially true in places where a downturn in local industries means that there is no longer a viable market in which to sell their unskilled or semi-skilled labour. Nevertheless, in this paper I focus on what Ferguson has called the 'mundane vernaculars of making do', here taken to mean the social and economic practices which root working-class people in place. I draw on ethnography from a small town in the East Kimberley region of Western Australia where I have conducted fieldwork since 2013.