Transformative or a new hegemonic discourse?
Kay Turner
SDN Child and Family Services
Contact Email: k.turner
sdn.org.au
Social inclusion has been of international interest since the1980s in response to the social impact of market conditions and in particular, to increasing poverty juxtaposed against increasing wealth. In this context, the Australian Labor Party (ALP) introduced an Australian Social Inclusion Agenda when elected to office in 2007 and has subsequently been discussing the agenda widely. However, the concept of social inclusion is a contested concept that lacks clarity and can conceal assumptions and agendas.
This presentation will report on findings of a study that used discourse analysis of documents relating to the Australian Social Inclusion Agenda to explore the explicit and embedded meanings of social inclusion contained within them. The analysis provided evidence of diverse meanings being applied to social inclusion by the current Australian Government. Given this evidence it will be proposed that, rather than being transformative, the new Australian Social Inclusion Agenda contains a master narrative. Such a narrative risks sustaining and furthering a hegemonic discourse that, if acted upon in policy, could further stigmatise and exclude those the agenda purports to include.
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