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'Hurtling down the track': The significance of Australian population debates in an era of anxiety

journal contribution
posted on 2023-05-17, 16:02 authored by Keith JacobsKeith Jacobs
This article focuses on some of the fantasies underpinning contemporary politics and the way that these ‘perform’, in effect, to occlude more complex understandings. To develop my argument, I deploy a critical discourse analysis to consider the narratives used by politicians during the 2010 Australian Federal election campaign to galvanise popular support by raising the ‘threat’ posed by large-scale population growth. I argue that narratives framing ‘population growth as unsustainable’ have a resonance with sections of the electorate because they connect to a sense of unease about the present and the future. The vexed debates surrounding population size are indicative of anxieties that lie beneath the surface of political discourse.

History

Publication title

Journal of Sociology

Volume

51

Issue

4

Pagination

799-811

ISSN

1440-7833

Department/School

School of Social Sciences

Publisher

Sage

Place of publication

London

Rights statement

Copyright 2013 SAGE Publications

Repository Status

  • Restricted

Socio-economic Objectives

Government and politics not elsewhere classified

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