Dialoging Citizenship in Queensland

Corcoran TD¹*

1. Charles Sturt University, Bathurst, NSW, Australia

This paper considers several discursive processes involved in an example of citizen-government dialogue. The relationship enacted occurs daily in each of our communities and here involves samples of Queensland legislative practice, representing the government’s position, and exerts from interviews undertaken with young males who have experienced either formal school exclusion or first-time incarceration. Constructions of identity, central to the concept of citizenship, are explored through two prominent discourses signaled in the exchange: individualism and moral/behavioural. These dialogic relationships offer descriptive insight into processes through which marginalisation occur yet they also disclose valuable options for sustaining ongoing conversation. As institutions of the twenty-first century reposition to embrace a more participatory operational charter it is suggested that practices of sanctioned exclusion will exemplify a State’s governance ethos. In this case, the business of exclusion will remain evidence enough as to the ability of government to engage or estrange members of their community.

Click here to view the full paper