Bubble clash: Identity,environment and politics in a multicultural suburb

Abstract

The purpose of article is to examine whether the current feminist philosophies in the intersection of identity, politics and the environment can have practical purchase in urban problem-solving. My argument is mobilised using the story of Greater Dandenong, a multicultural suburb approximately 30km south-east of Melbourne's central business district. This suburb witnessed what I call a ‘bubble clash.’ In recent years, Greater Dandenong has experienced an ecological problem: its seagull population has increased, causing community conflicts over how to manage it. These conflicts have been fought between insular, closed (i.e. bubble) groups. One effect of this ‘bubble clash’ has been that it is incredibly difficult to develop a communal agreement between groups with very different outlooks. Feminist theory has, historically, provided significant resources for understanding this kind of situation. In the article, I review feminist political philosophies – drawing on Iris Young, Patricia H. Collins and Elizabeth Grosz – that help us understand how identity and urban politics relate. My contribution is to add a pragmatic supplement to this body of work. Extending beyond the interpretation of multiculturalism in which ‘differences’ in our identities are given an a priori quality, I propose a ‘transitionist pragmatist perspective’ that (a) reframes how we understand context and contingency in the ongoing formation of subjectivities and their ideals and (b) seeks to trace the history of problematic situations specifically through the lens of problem-solving.