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Cultural Studies

Australia Reimagined
Towards a More Compassionate, Less Anxious Society
By: Hugh Mackay
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Paperback | 24 April 2018
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'When it comes to our ecological, social, cultural and economic future, misplaced optimism is as dangerous as blind faith. What is needed is the courage to face the way things are, and the wisdom and imagination - informed by the best available evidence - to work out how to make things better.'
Australia's unprecedented run of economic growth has failed to deliver a more stable or harmonious society. Individualism is rampant. Income inequality is growing. Public education is under-resourced. The gender revolution is stalling. We no longer trust our major institutions or our political leaders. We are more socially fragmented, more anxious, more depressed, more overweight, more medicated, deeper in debt and increasingly addicted - whether to our digital devices, drugs, pornography or 'stuff'.
Yet esteemed social researcher Hugh Mackay remains optimistic. Twenty-five years ago, he revolutionised Australian social analysis with the publication of Reinventing Australia. Now he takes another unflinching look at us and offers some compelling proposals for a more compassionate and socially cohesive Australia. You might not agree with everything he suggests, but you'll find it hard to get some of his ideas out of your head.
Argued with intelligence and passion, this book is essential reading for everyone who loves Australia enough to want to make it a better place for all of us.
About the Author
Hugh Mackay is a social researcher and bestselling author. Australia Reimagined is his nineteenth book. His research career has spanned six decades, including 25 years as research director of The Mackay Report, publishing quarterly reports on all aspects of Australian life. Among many honorary appointments, he has been deputy chair of the Australia Council for the Arts, chairman of trustees of Sydney Grammar School, the inaugural chair of the ACT government's Community Inclusion Board, and is currently a patron of the Asylum Seekers Centre. He is a Fellow of the Australian Psychological Society and has been awarded honorary doctorates by five Australian universities. In 2015, he was appointed an Officer of the Order of Australia. He lives in Canberra.
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4.8 Based on 4 Reviews
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R&
19/12/2020Rainbow &.
Sydney Australia
I recommend this product
I Will Consider Buying This Special Book.
Well I Would Dearly Love 💓 To Write Here Something Special and Possibly Positive About Hugh Mackay, I Agree With Him Totally On All His Aspects Regarding Australia Reimagined and I Personally Think Personally Everyone Would Benefit From Reading This informative Book! I Thank You 👍 Booktopia.com.au
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25/01/2020Brooksie
Near Albury.NSW
I recommend this product
Social commentary
Great interpretation of australian society today.
Australia Reimagined
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05/11/2018Paul
Gold Coast
I recommend this product
An excellent book
Excellent book cleverly integrates current problems with possible solutions. What a pity Booktopia don't supply printed receipts with books ordered.
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21/05/2018PPancada
Geraldton, Western Australia
I recommend this product
Fantastic material, great reading and extremely relevant
I am very impressed with the Author sharpness and field knowledge, the quality of the references he makes, how clearly the message is transmitted and how relevant the several subjects addressed are to our current Australia. Very influential book and sooo relevant to most western societies. Brilliant work Mr Mackay, congratulations!
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Australia Reimagined
Towards a More Compassionate, Less Anxious Society
By: Hugh Mackay
4 reviewsWrite A Review
Paperback | 24 April 2018
RRP $19.99
$18.25
Add to Cart
Aims to ship in 15 to 18 business days
When will this arrive by?
Enter delivery postcode to estimate
DescriptionProduct DetailsShipping and Returns
'When it comes to our ecological, social, cultural and economic future, misplaced optimism is as dangerous as blind faith. What is needed is the courage to face the way things are, and the wisdom and imagination - informed by the best available evidence - to work out how to make things better.'
Australia's unprecedented run of economic growth has failed to deliver a more stable or harmonious society. Individualism is rampant. Income inequality is growing. Public education is under-resourced. The gender revolution is stalling. We no longer trust our major institutions or our political leaders. We are more socially fragmented, more anxious, more depressed, more overweight, more medicated, deeper in debt and increasingly addicted - whether to our digital devices, drugs, pornography or 'stuff'.
Yet esteemed social researcher Hugh Mackay remains optimistic. Twenty-five years ago, he revolutionised Australian social analysis with the publication of Reinventing Australia. Now he takes another unflinching look at us and offers some compelling proposals for a more compassionate and socially cohesive Australia. You might not agree with everything he suggests, but you'll find it hard to get some of his ideas out of your head.
Argued with intelligence and passion, this book is essential reading for everyone who loves Australia enough to want to make it a better place for all of us.
About the Author
Hugh Mackay is a social researcher and bestselling author. Australia Reimagined is his nineteenth book. His research career has spanned six decades, including 25 years as research director of The Mackay Report, publishing quarterly reports on all aspects of Australian life. Among many honorary appointments, he has been deputy chair of the Australia Council for the Arts, chairman of trustees of Sydney Grammar School, the inaugural chair of the ACT government's Community Inclusion Board, and is currently a patron of the Asylum Seekers Centre. He is a Fellow of the Australian Psychological Society and has been awarded honorary doctorates by five Australian universities. In 2015, he was appointed an Officer of the Order of Australia. He lives in Canberra.
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4.8 Based on 4 Reviews
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From Australia
fairygwf11
5.0 out of 5 stars Inspiring work for all Australians
Reviewed in Australia on 25 January 2023
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I feel a sense of hope for our country and its people, after reading this book. The ideas and ideals are worthy of consideration by all Australians.
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Darren Cronshaw
5.0 out of 5 stars Diagnosis and proactive suggestions for solutions to Australian social issues
Reviewed in Australia on 11 November 2018
Hugh Mackay is Australia’s best known social researcher and author 25 years ago of Reinventing Australia. In Australia Reimagined he shows he continues to have his finger on the pulse of a range of pressing social issues and points in some bold and radical directions for change.
Mackay’s portrayal of what is going wrong is especially concerning for me as I look towards the future of Australia through the eyes of my children. He identifies challenges of relationship breakdown, fragmented neighbourhoods, economic inequality, housing affordability, underemployment, neglect of First peoples, rampant gambling, 100,000 homeless Australians and 65,000 attempted suicides annually. He describes our heartless treatment of asylum seekers (despite a majority of Australians advocating a more welcoming approach), excessive reliance on digital technology, degrading school system and increasingly commercialized university system, and distrust of institutions including parliament, churches and banks,. As a reader I was aware of many of these issues, but Mackay’s analysis gave me stark insights into their extent and implications. Moreover, he opened my eyes to realities I was unaware. For example, lagging behind the pressing social issues our nation faces is a lack of philanthropy; e.g., almost 40% of Australians earning over a million dollars do not claim a single dollar of tax-deductable charity donations! And people report concerning levels of distrust in their neighbours – not because neighbours are universally untrustworthy, but because we do not know our neighbours enough. The biggest challenge Mackay identifies, however, is the heightened and widespread anxiety epidemic. We are an overbusy, hyperconnected, financially overstretched, overweight, overmedicated and overanxious society.
Thankfully Mackay does not simply identify problems but points in alternative directions. Often these are bold and radical suggestions, especially in the four ‘fault lines’ of gender, religion, politics and education. Mackay suggests the gender revolution has stalled and urges a new level of partnership between women and men. As a necessary kickstart he appeals for quotas of women on boards and in leadership positions. Regarding religion, Mackay observes that despite the decline of church attendance there is an increasingly pervasive understanding of God being with and in us and increase of those who self-identify as ‘spiritual but not religious’. If anxiety is the most pressing social issue in Australia, then compassion and mutual respect that religion or any spirituality at its best can foster is the biggest need and solution. The main problem with politics, Mackay suggests, is our adversarial system and so he suggests parliamentary reform, perhaps even nominating representatives by ballot or at least directly recruiting experts as ministers. In the meantime, he urges expecting better service from our parliamentarians (and not calling them politicians). Finally, he challenges the rhetoric of ‘choice’ in education and urges phasing out public money for private schools in the interests of a more egalitarian system offering quality education for all.
One area I would like to read more from Mackay is about more compassionate relationships with Indigenous peoples. Mackay notes Australia’s moral blindness led to one of the worst records of treatment of her First Peoples: ‘For too long, the heart of our nation has been hardened towards its First Peoples, partly because moral and emotional disengagement is an effective way of avoiding the burden of our national shame.’ (p.85) He bemoans how we continue as a nation to fail to act in constructive directions. For example, in 2017 we debated whether to include reference to Aborigines in the constitution’s preamble. The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Constitutional Convention of May 2017 issued the ‘Uluru Statement’ that appealed instead for a more serious constitutionally enshrined voice to Parliament, with an Indigenous body outside the Parliamentary structure that advises on issues and legislation related to Indigenous people. Outrageously, it was dismissed and not even discussed by Malcolm Turnbull and his cabinet. Reconciliation with indigenous peoples and closing the gap of inequality of healthcare, education and political representation desperately needs more reimagining and compassionate action along the lines of Mackay’s social vision.
Mackay’s writing suggests many implications for mission and leadership of our churches and agencies. We need a spirituality for our times and I appreciate Mackay’s comments on the power of faith and faith community. We need to model alternatives to materialistic consumerism and develop new ethics in the context of the digital revolution. Locally we need to proactively foster neighbourly connections; among my favourite stories Mackay narrated were the neighbourhood Facebook groups and associated street parties that connected neighbours. Given the declining trust in institutions, we need to reclaim (and re-earn) trust as leaders including the church. Ultimately, we need to join together in thinking innovatively about our most pressing social issues. Mackay celebrates the Aussie innovativeness and resourcefulness that he inspired me to draw on in my research and leadership: “Our capacity for hard thinking, tempered by compassion – the powerful combination former NSW Premier Nick Greiner described as ‘tough minds, tender hearts’ – is what has always prevented us from descending into chaos, and it can keep preventing us” (p.2).
Australia Reimagined is an antidote for complacency and a manifesto for compassion that calls for courage, wisdom and imagination towards a less anxious society. It is essential reading for community leaders and anyone interested in understanding our pressing social issues and proposing alternative solutions.
This review was originally published in Australian Journal of Mission Studies 12:2 (2018), 67, 2.
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From other countries
Ian Murray
4.0 out of 5 stars Classic Hugh MacKay, insightful, challenging, depressing at times.
Reviewed in the United States on 9 November 2018
Verified Purchase
Classic Hugh MacKay, certainly tells it as it is, insightful and challenges you to focus on the reality not just the hyperbole which can be a bit depressing.
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Reviews
R&
19/12/2020Rainbow &.
Sydney Australia
I recommend this product
I Will Consider Buying This Special Book.
Well I Would Dearly Love 💓 To Write Here Something Special and Possibly Positive About Hugh Mackay, I Agree With Him Totally On All His Aspects Regarding Australia Reimagined and I Personally Think Personally Everyone Would Benefit From Reading This informative Book! I Thank You 👍 Booktopia.com.au
Australia Reimagined
Share
Was this helpful? 0 0
B
25/01/2020Brooksie
Near Albury.NSW
I recommend this product
Social commentary
Great interpretation of australian society today.
Australia Reimagined
Share
Was this helpful? 0 0
P
05/11/2018Paul
Gold Coast
I recommend this product
An excellent book
Excellent book cleverly integrates current problems with possible solutions. What a pity Booktopia don't supply printed receipts with books ordered.
Australia Reimagined
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P
21/05/2018PPancada
Geraldton, Western Australia
I recommend this product
Fantastic material, great reading and extremely relevant
I am very impressed with the Author sharpness and field knowledge, the quality of the references he makes, how clearly the message is transmitted and how relevant the several subjects addressed are to our current Australia. Very influential book and sooo relevant to most western societies. Brilliant work Mr Mackay, congratulations!
Australia Reimagined
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세진님, 요청하신 <오스트레일리아 리이매진드>(Australia Reimagined: Towards a More Compassionate, Less Anxious Society)의 요약과 평론입니다.
설정해주신 기준에 맞춰 책 제목은 한국어로 번역하고, 본문 전반에 걸쳐 별표 사용을 배제한 채 < > 기호를 적용했습니다. 아울러 세진님과의 대화인 이 서두와 결문은 존댓말로, 본 분석 글(요약 및 평론)은 철저히 <해라> 체의 반말로 작성했습니다.
<오스트레일리아 리이매진드> 요약 및 평론
1. 서론: 풍요 속의 빈곤, 길을 잃은 호주 사회
호주의 저명한 사회조사연구가이자 심리학자인 휴 맥케이(Hugh Mackay)가 2018년에 출간한 <오스트레일리아 리이매진드>는 호주 사회가 직면한 전례 없는 역설을 날카롭게 파헤친 사회 비평서다. 호주는 수십 년간 지속적인 경제 성장을 이룩하며 물질적 풍요를 누려왔다. 그러나 저자는 이러한 경제적 번영이 더 안정적이거나 조화로운 사회를 만들어내는 데 처참히 실패했다고 선언한다. 오히려 현대 호주인들은 과거보다 더 고립되고, 불안해하며, 정신적인 고통을 호소하고 있다. 이 책은 '우리는 왜 더 부유해졌음에도 더 불행해졌는가?'라는 질문을 던지며, 각자도생의 개인주의에서 벗어나 연대와 나눔을 바탕으로 한 더 자비롭고 덜 불안한 공동체로 나아가기 위한 실천적 제안을 담고 있다.
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2. 사회적 징후 분석: 불안과 분열의 원인
맥케이는 현대 호주 사회를 병들게 하는 핵심 요인으로 급격한 개인주의의 확산과 사회적 파편화를 지목한다. 그는 정밀한 사회적 데이터를 바탕으로 오늘날 호주인들이 겪는 내면의 위기를 다음과 같은 세부 영역으로 나누어 분석한다.
극단적 개인주의와 경제적 불평등: 물질적 성공과 개인의 성취를 최우선으로 여기는 문화가 정착하면서 공동체 의식이 약화되었다. 소득 격차는 갈수록 벌어지고 있으며, 이는 구성원 간의 위화감과 사회적 불신을 심화시키는 기폭제가 되었다.
제도의 신뢰 붕괴: 국민들은 더 이상 주요 정치 정당, 종교 기관, 대기업, 언론 등 전통적인 사회적 제도를 신뢰하지 않는다. 정치권의 당리당략과 리더십의 부재는 대중에게 깊은 냉소주의를 심어주었다.
디지털 고립과 중독: 소셜 미디어와 디지털 기기의 발달은 표면적인 연결을 늘렸을 뿐, 깊이 있는 인간적 교류를 대체하지 못했다. 사람들은 스크린 뒤로 숨어들며 오히려 더 심각한 외로움을 느끼고 있으며, 이는 약물, 알코올, 물질주의적 소비 중독으로 이어지고 있다.
교육 및 젠더 혁신의 정체: 공공 교육에 대한 재정 지원이 약화되면서 교육의 형평성이 무너지고 있다. 또한 성평등을 향한 거대한 사회적 흐름이 가시적인 성과를 내는 듯 보였으나, 구조적인 장벽과 고정관념에 부딪혀 정체 상태에 머물러 있다.
3. 대안의 모색: 자비로운 공동체를 위한 제안
저자는 단순히 문제점을 나열하는 데 그치지 않고, 호주 사회를 '재상상(Reimagined)'하기 위한 구체적인 해법을 제시한다. 맥케이가 제안하는 핵심 솔루션은 거창한 제도적 개혁보다 '우리가 서로를 대하는 방식의 변화'에 방점이 찍혀 있다.
The Forge - Defence
첫째, 이웃과의 연결성 회복이다. 저자는 자신이 사는 지역사회의 이웃들과 인사를 나누고, 동네 피크닉이나 작은 소모임을 활성화하는 등 일상적이고 물리적인 접촉을 늘려야 한다고 주장한다. 이 작은 연결이 사회적 안전망의 기초가 되기 때문이다.
둘째, 공공 교육의 강화다. 사립학교에 과도하게 편중된 정부 지원을 재조정하고 공립학교의 질을 높여, 출신 배경과 상관없이 모든 아이에게 공평한 기회를 제공해야 한다고 강조한다. 교육이야말로 국가의 심장이자 미래를 결정하는 가장 강력한 수단이라는 것이 그의 지론이다.
셋째, 황금률의 실천이다. "내가 대접받고 싶은 대로 남을 대접하라"는 인류의 고전적인 도덕 원칙을 사회적 기준으로 삼아, 타인의 목소리에 귀를 기울이고 다양성을 포용하는 자비로운 태도를 체화해야 한다고 권고한다.
4. 비판적 평론: 세계인의 시각에서 본 호주의 거울
<오스트레일리아 리이매진드>는 호주라는 특정 국가를 배경으로 삼고 있으나, 그 안에서 다뤄지는 주제들은 현대 자본주의와 민주주의를 채택한 전 세계 국가들이 공통으로 겪고 있는 보편적인 병폐를 관통한다. 60년 이상 호주 사회의 변화를 추적해 온 노학자의 통찰은 매우 예리하며, 방대한 조사 데이터와 심리학적 배경이 더해져 진단 부분에서 높은 설득력을 획득한다.
Macquarie Matters
특히 이 책이 가진 가장 큰 미덕은 냉소주의에 빠지지 않는 '근거 있는 낙관주의'다. 저자는 호주 사회의 어두운 단면을 가차 없이 폭로하면서도, 인간이 본래 지닌 연대와 공감의 능력을 신뢰한다. 구조적 모순 앞에서 무력감을 느끼기 쉬운 대중에게 "당장 오늘 당신의 이웃에게 말을 거는 것부터 시작하라"는 메시지는 실천 가능하면서도 묵직한 울림을 준다.
그러나 몇 가지 한계점 역시 존재한다.
우선, 사회적 갈등과 불안의 원인을 개인의 도덕적 해이나 문화적 현상으로 치부하는 경향이 있어, 거시적인 경제 구조와 신자유주의적 시스템 자체에 대한 근본적인 메스질은 부족하다는 인상을 준다. 예컨대 소득 불평등이나 주거 불안정 같은 문제는 개인이 이웃과 친하게 지낸다고 해서 해결될 수 있는 영역이 아니다. 법적 제도 개선이나 강력한 정책적 개입에 대한 구체적인 로드맵이 생략된 채, 개인의 태도 변화와 자발적인 공동체 운동에 과도하게 의존하는 성향은 다소 이상주의적이고 순진한 접근으로 비칠 수 있다.
그럼에도 불구하고 이 책은 국가적인 애국심이나 맹목적인 충성심을 강요하지 않는다. 대신 '내가 발을 딛고 살아가는 물리적인 공간과 그곳에서 만나는 인간들'에 대한 책임감을 이야기한다. 특정 국가의 경계를 넘어, 지구촌 어디에서나 발생하고 있는 인간 소외와 불안의 메커니즘을 이해하고, 더 나은 인류 공동체를 고민하고자 하는 세계인들에게 훌륭한 나침반이 되어줄 만한 작품이다.
이 책의 핵심 아이디어를 더 깊이 나누기 위해 다음과 같은 대화를 이어갈 수 있습니다.
호주 교육 시스템의 사립 대 공립 불평등 문제 알아보기
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