Uncertain Lives

Uncertain Lives is the first book to examine the impact of neoliberal policies on everyday life in Australia. Going beyond the discussions of multiculturalism that dominated the 1980s and 1990s, Uncertain Lives examines the persistence of race and racism in the Australian experience. While the governments of John Howard followed the rhetoric of neoliberalism in suggesting that market forces dominated social relations, in reality the racism that had been founded in the White Australia policy became again increasingly acceptable, and accepted, in a society no longer subject to the values of multiculturalism.

Uncertain Lives tracks this racism from its pervasiveness in everyday life to the ways race influenced decisions about who would, and would not, be allowed into Australia. From discussions of asylum seekers to migrants to the ways that thinking about the border itself has been transformed, Uncertain Lives charts the recent history of the Australian experience. Uncertain Lives ranges over events such as the Cronulla Riots of 2005 and the 2006 Beaconsfield mine rescue and uses a variety of recent films to highlight the impact of race in a society where liberal and social democratic values have been replaced by neoliberal ideology.