Transnational otherness and the paradox of hybridity in Singapore and Australia: A critical realist approach

This chapter reviews the conceptualisation of hybridity and its relationship to the discourse of multiracialism and multiculturalism in Singapore and Australia respectively. It brings to this discussion a critical realist or post-positivist approach to understanding cultural and racial identity. Drawing on some representative studies on multiculturalism and hybridity within Singapore and Australia, the chapter demonstrates the tendency of some scholars towards a radical contextualist position (Lawson 2008) which overemphasises specificity. In fact, a language of contextualism, emphasising specificity, particularity and contingency, has been part of the general development of multiculturalism and hybridity studies both in Australia and Singapore.