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Outrageous! Moral panics in Australia, edited by Scott Poynting and George Morgan
ACYS Publishing
March 2007
ISBN: 978-1-875236-59-6 (pbk)
20% discount for bulk orders of 5 or more copies. Please print out the order form
and send it to:
ACYS Publishing
University of Tasmania
Private Bag 64, Hobart Tasmania 7001
Ph: (03) 6226 2591
Fax: (03) 6226 2578
ABN 30 764 374 782
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Reviews
What was Cronulla about? What really prompted 5000 people to take the beach to bash people of 'Middle Eastern' appearance?
When Macquarie Fields exploded into flames as Molotov cocktails were hurled at police, was it just a car crash that provoked the residents?
Why did the Indigenous community on Palm Island react so violently to Mulrunji's death in custody?
In a detailed examination of case studies, a distinguished group of experts demystifies the social processes of moral panic in Australia. Seventeen chapters explore not only the salience of the notion of moral panic in contemporary Australia, but also the relevance of moral panics in Australian history, the impact of new communication technologies and the demonisation of social categories, such as cultural minorities.
Already set as a text for University of Western Sydney students, this book is a fascinating read for all those who want to go behind the hysteria, the headlines and the sound bites.
Collection editors: Scott Poynting and George Morgan
Scott Poynting is Associate Professor in the School of Humanities and Languages at the University of Western Sydney. He is co-author of Kebabs, Kids, Cops and Crime (2000) and Bin Laden in the Suburbs: Criminalising the Arab Other (2004).
George Morgan is Senior Lecturer in the School of Humanities and Languages at the University of Western Sydney. He is author of Unsettled Places: Aboriginal People and Urbanisation in New South Wales (2006).
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Reviews:
Outrageous! Moral panics in Australia
Reviewer: Lorien Kaye, The Age, 16/6/2007, A2, p.28.
Relying on exaggeration and disproportionate responses, moral panics tend to centre on a particular group that is made Other, a group defined as intrinsically deviant and thus a threat to mainstream society. The concept was developed in 1972 by sociologist Stan Cohen, who used the term in relation to mods and rockers in 1960s Britain. Outrageous! studies 17 moral panics in Australia and shows that the Other can be anyone from a 19th-century larrikin to a young man in a hotted-up car. Moral panics often focus on youth subcultures, but in this volume several of the demonised groups are defined by their ethnicity. Outrageous! includes historical and contemporary case studies and the juxtaposition can be telling. Nahid Kabir looks at how Afghans in the late 19th century were demonised as intrinsically dirty, disease-ridden and violent to women, while in the next chapter Scott Poynting examines the demonising of Lebanese Australians during the violence at Cronulla. Some chapters, particularly one on Cabramatta, show that representations of issues can be more complex than our understanding of the term moral panic would suggest. Especially with today's diversity of media, a range of views can be covered and the Other can have a voice. This is very much an academic text; it would be good to see similar material written for a general readership.
Outrageous! Moral panics in Australia
Reviewer: Dan Eady, Courier Mail, 02/06/2007, p.24
Already a set text at university level, Outrageous! is publicised as a "fascinating read for all those who want to go behind the hysteria, the headlines and the sound bites". And if it is to be regarded as a serious guide, well, it would seem us Aussies all love a good "folk devil". Jokes aside, this compilation paints a grim and sobering portrait of our society. Seventeen chapters presented as case studies of our 200-year-plus history are submitted as painstaking evidence into the cultural malaise of the moral panic. The term was first defined in 1972 as, "a condition, episode, person or group of persons (that) emerges to become defined as a threat to societal values and interests; its nature is presented in a stylised and stereotypical fashion by the mass media". The Indigenous, Afghans, Lebanese, Vietnamese, Muslim, 19th-century larrikins, hoons, ecstasy, heroin, mobile phones and 1960s rock 'n' rollers are but a few subjects scrutinised. Through time each entry is expertly contextualised. Cabramatta, Palm Island, Macquarie Fields and the anti-eviction struggles of Sydney are engaging microcosms of this phenomenon. A conclusion is woven through this collection of topical qualitative analysis: Maybe, like viruses certain sociological frenzies take root in Australian society. "Moral barricades" are then set up "and manned by editors, bishops, politicians and other right-wing thinking people". But the people responsible for these barriers are usually the ones who started the infection in the first place. And rather than sedate the mob, these people feed the madness. Outrageous! is a pointed primer into the epidemic of moral panics.
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