Introduction

Abstract

I’m sitting here at my desk in Paris trying to account for all the communities I believe I belong to. First, the ones I belong to by birth — as an Australian from Sydney. These two communities are joined together by location, knowledge of location, language and all the implicit understandings that go with that. These ‘knowledges’ are part of my being-ness, the sediment if you like of thirty years in both that city and that country. If I was to fly there tomorrow I could get into a cab and immediately have a conversation establishing me as a member of that community. Furthermore by getting in the front seat I would immediately make a statement about myself as a Sydneysider and an Australian. Crucially this would be the case even if I was totally ‘faking’ it, that is if I was not a Sydneysider all, but simply someone with a well rehearsed ‘act’.