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Understanding Cultural Differences at the Frontline

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conference contribution
posted on 2023-05-23, 09:50 authored by Fiona ProudfootFiona Proudfoot
Mainstream housing service providers are increasingly involved in the provision of housing services to Indigenous clients but there has been little investigation of how housing staff experience and manage the intercultural dimensions of this. This issue is important because of the considerable discretionary power that tenancy managers and frontline staff, exercise in their role. This paper develops a theoretical model for exploring how housing practitioners construct and understand cultural differences and/or similarities and the role this plays in shaping their professional interactions with Indigenous tenants. Thirty-one semi-structured in depth interviews were conducted in metropolitan and regional Queensland with housing practitioners working with Indigenous clients, in state, community and Indigenous-specific social housing services. Early findings suggest practitioners’ understandings can be located along a continuum of Racialised Dichotomy, Homogeneity and Recognition. This combines with their experiential knowing of Indigenous people and their cultural practices, and may help to explain how practitioners utilise their discretionary power at the interface of service provision.

History

Publication title

Challenging Identities, Institutions and Communities: Refereed Proceedings of the TASA 2014

Editors

West, B

Pagination

1-13

ISBN

9780646927350

Department/School

School of Social Sciences

Publisher

The Australian Sociological Association (TASA)

Place of publication

Adelaide, Australia

Event title

2014 Conference of The Australian Sociological Association: Challenging Identities, Institutions and Communities.

Event Venue

Adelaide

Date of Event (Start Date)

2014-11-24

Date of Event (End Date)

2014-11-27

Rights statement

Copyright 2008 the author

Repository Status

  • Open

Socio-economic Objectives

Communication across languages and culture

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    University Of Tasmania

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