Young people and intercultural sociality after Cronulla

This paper considers how the Cronulla riots have shaped some popular directions in theory and practice regarding young people’s intercultural relations that are primarily focused on social cohesion, harmony and cultural understanding. Drawing on research we have undertaken post-Cronulla with young people in some of Australia’s most diverse (and disadvantaged) neighbourhoods, we suggest that this approach to improving youth interculturality does not adequately account for the complex forms of sociality that exist in multicultural youth cultures. We illustrate how routine and intimate intercultural engagements are interwoven with forms of discord, some of it racialised and racist, but not always destructive of simultaneous positive fellow-feeling. We argue for greater attention to the multiple lines along which youth affiliate, connect and also differentiate themselves that inform their practices of inclusion and exclusion beyond lack of cultural understanding.