Redefining the Australian Suburban Culture

1. Redefining the Australian Suburban Culture Modeina 6 Lexington Drive, Burnside VIC 3023 Australia Phone no:1 300-724-723 Modeina Phone no:1 300-724-723 6 Lexington Drive, Burnside VIC 3023, Australia

2. In popular culture, suburbs have always been depicted as dull, monotonous artificial communities where neighbours would express their materialism with neatly manicured gardens, hardwood shutters and picket fences. Popular depictions in TV and film project an image of suburbia as a place far removed from political and social participation. But, as Andie Fox describes in her essay in The Guardian, ‘suburbia snobs are wrong’. The Stigma Scholars once feared that suburbia will develop into a breeding ground for political apathy and racism, as the local populations would move out of the inner cities where immigrant populations dominate. But, in Australia, the suburbs are home to about 90% of the population, including a vast mix of incomes, occupations and immigrant cultures. Another common stigma attached to suburbia is that it is all about boredom and that people who live there are plain and predictable. Critics also characterise suburban life with over- consumption and materialism. Sure, there will always be that greedy neighbour with the greenest lawn and the shiniest car. But, it would be unfair to generalise the entire suburbia as a mass of greedy, materialistic and socially apathetic people. Just as not all inner city dwellers are politically-inclined and cool. Modeina Phone no:1 300-724-723 6 Lexington Drive, Burnside VIC 3023, Australia

3. What Suburbia Is All About The truth is that suburbia is a breeding ground for individuality. Today, community-based activism has been more active in Australian suburbia than in the inner cities. The media may depict suburbia as culturally conservative, but if you skirt through suburban streets, you would see eccentric landscaping, sundering toys in the driveway and an explosion of design interests. In Australia, suburbia is the new bohemia. Just like inner cities, suburbs are interesting and dynamic as well, if one strips the stigma away from the image. In defence of suburban life, Andie Fox, as a suburban and a writer herself, argues that she is fond of the idea of having a shared commitment to boundaries that is possible only in the suburbs. She adds that, with Australian suburbia as a great example, the point of suburbia is not to remain static. It has always been in transition. Furthermore, she writes that suburbia encourages a distance among us and provides the opportunity to ‘live outside the city walls of inner city cool’. In fact, suburban neighbourhoods are more kind-hearted and eccentric. And with the rise of immigrant populations in Australia, it now hosts an explosion of different cultures, languages, sensibilities and ideas. Modeina Phone no:1 300-724-723 6 Lexington Drive, Burnside VIC 3023, Australia

4. Resources: http://modeina.com.au/ http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/jan/15/why-suburbia-snobs-are-wrong http://www.sbs.com.au/news/map/where-australias-immigrants-were-born-sydney Modeina Phone no:1 300-724-723 6 Lexington Drive, Burnside VIC 3023, Australia