Australian Citizenship

Growing numbers of scholars, practitioners, politicians, and citizens recognize the value of deliberative civic engagement processes that enable citizens and governments to come together in public spaces and engage in constructive dialogue, informed discussion, and decisive deliberation. This book seeks to fill a gap in empirical studies in deliberative democracy by studying the assembly of the Australian Citizens’ Parliament (ACP), which took place in Canberra on February 6–8, 2009. The ACP addressed the question “How can the Australian political system be strengthened to serve us better?” The ACP’s Canberra assembly is the first large-scale, face-to-face deliberative project to be completely audio-recorded and transcribed, enabling an unprecedented level of qualitative and quantitative assessment of participants’ actual spoken discourse. Each chapter reports on different research questions for different purposes to benefit different audiences. Combined, they exhibit how diverse modes of research focused on a single event can enhance both theoretical and practical knowledge about deliberative democracy.

Australia and Canada are both lively, multicultural societies with British constitutional traditions. Historically, they have faced similar challenges in defining and sustaining citizenship that reach back into a common past. They also have similar approaches to address contemporary issues and anticipate the challenges of a 21st century future. New perspectives on the culture and politics of citizenship emerge in this timely text that is essential reading for those interested in the steadily expanding ties between Australia and Canada. Published in English.

A contribution to the ongoing discussion of Australian citizenship. The articles reveal the complexity of Australian legislation as it has tried, over the years, to accommodate changing ideas about exactly what citizenship entails, and who is, or is not, eligible for it.

This book explores how Australian secondary schools prepare their students for global citizenship. Globalisation has irrevocably changed modern countries and societies, and the benefits and pressures this brings are being felt as never before. Drawing on empirical data from six Australian secondary schools, the author examines how school leaders and teachers understand global citizenship, how they translate this into their practice, and how students experience and make sense of global citizenship education. In doing so, the book portrays how school leaders, teachers and students grapple with key issues central to global citizenship education, including how they work to mediate some of the tensions involved. While the book concentrates on the Australian context, its findings and analysis have resonance for other countries in which global citizenship education operates as a core goal of education and schooling.

"When Paul Keating announced his plans for an Australian Republic in 1995, he emphatically appealed for Australia's head of state to be 'one of us.' But what does it mean to be 'one of us'? Who can be an Australian citizen? Who was entitled to citizenship in the past? By what paths can newcomers become 'one of us'? And how have these paths changed since 1901? "One of Us? A Century of Australian Citizenship" traces the meanings of citizenship and belonging that are evident in the Australian Government's civil policies. The book shows that, since Federation, Australian citizenship has had much less to do with questions of civil and political rights, democracy and sovereignty than with a determination to create a cohesive and loyal citizenry. The government's policies have addressed the problems it has faced in incorporating migrants and in controlling the movement of people in and out of the country. At a time when questions of who can be 'one of us' are as alive as ever, and when citizenship, race and multiculturalism are vital issues in contemporary politics, this comprehensive examination of our past is vital to our understanding of the issue of citizenship today."

This edited collection explores citizenship in a transnational perspective, with a focus on Australia, Canada, and New Zealand. It adopts a multi-disciplinary approach and offers historical, legal, political, and sociological perspectives. The two overarching themes of the book are ethnicity and Indigeneity. The contributions in the collection come from widely respected international scholars who approach the subject of citizenship from a range of perspectives: some arguing for a post-citizenship world, others questioning the very concept itself, or its application to Indigenous nations.

Australians have much to celebrate in the hundred years of their citizenship, but also a good deal to be ashamed of. The authors argue that good citizenship depends on moral citizens, able to discern between what is worthy of respect and pride and what is shameful in national life. Galligan and Roberts from Uni.of Melbourne.

The notion of citizenship is now being taken up internationally as a way to rethink questions of social cohesion and social justice. In Europe the concept of national identity is under close scrutiny, while the pressures of globalizing markets and the power of transnational corporations everywhere raise questions about the true place and meaning of citizenship in civil society. In Australia, a traditional view of citizens belonging to a single nation made up of one people, with a special relationship to one land, has been thrown open to challenge by a range of differing perspectives. Rethinking Australian Citizenship considers the major debates. Some chapters look at contemporary theoretical debates, while others 'reinvent' Australian citizenship from a particular perspective on civil life. The result is a rich and coherent volume that shows the diverse ways in which Australian citizenship can be rethought.