‘Innovation’ has become a buzz word for government, corporate and civil society sectors striving to respond to more complex social realities and seeking to improve overall productivity performance within their respective domains. At its most basic level and from a very general perspective, ‘innovation’ can be seen as the capacity to harness invention and creativity […]
Author Archives: Fethi Mansouri
About Fethi Mansouri
http://www.deakin.edu.au/profiles/fethi-mansouri
Much has already been said and written about the wave of protests about the anti-Islam trashy trailer ‘The Innocence of Muslims’. So as expected, many so-called Muslim ‘leaders’ have sprung up to explain, contextualise, restrain and advise. Some are even offering apologies to the wider society about the actions of the radical few who as always […]
Australia recently signed a deal with the United Arab Emirates to provide uranium for the Persian Gulf country’s planned nuclear power plants. In an email interview, Fethi Mansouri, the director of the Center for Citizenship and Globalization at Deakin University, Australia, and the author of “Australia and the Middle East: a Frontline Relationship,” discussed Australia-Middle […]
Let’s start with some basic facts. The 1951 Refugee Convention (as broadened by the 1967 Protocol) provides that the term “refugee” shall apply to any person who: "owing to well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion, is outside the country of his […]
Our Centre for Citizenship and Globalisation held last week (6 July 2012) a national symposium on ‘multiculturalism’ which attempted to connect theory and academic research to policy making and community practice. Indeed, and whilst the speakers from academe reflected on such concepts as feminism, cosmopolitanism, liberal demacratic theoy and social justice, a panel with prominent […]
This blog reproduces an interesting article/interview with Deakin Media coordinator Sandra Kingston about our recent national symposium on multiculturalism (held on 6 July 2012). ‘Nice in Theory: conference asks is research playing a part in multicultural policy making?’ A national symposium to be held at Deakin University this Friday will examine whether there […]
The Arab Spring, now entering its second year, was no random event. Rather, it was a synthesis of many interconnected failings within the post-colonial Arab state system ranging from endemic political corruption, to dire economic stagnation and associated social marginalisation of the masses to list just the obvious ones. But revolutions, as idealistic and romantic as they may appear to be, are […]
I have just arrived in Ottawa, Canada, as a visiting professor hosted by the Audio Visual Lab for the Study of Culture and Society, and only a few hours ago delivered my first public seminar about the transnational practices of migrants in multicultural societies. Yesterday, I was interviewed by local radios on the broader topic […]
It’s been almost eight months since the first Arab dictator, ousted President Ben Ali of Tunisia, fled the country under unprecedented popular uprisings signaling a snow-ball effect that has swept across North Africa and the Middle East like a political tsunami. Since then, events in Egypt led to similar outcomes with the spectacular demise of […]
In discussing multiculturalism, there is always a tendency to focus on the challenges posed by increased cultural and religious diversity to social cohesion. This is especially the case in states that are supposed to be more ‘secular’ or where religion is not expected to dominate public life. But how nation states deal with religiosity […]