ABSTRACT
The cultural dimensions of restructuring have been largely glossed over in the public policy debates. This chapter raises some of the issues involved in the cultural dimensions of restructuring of the Australian economy. While the discourse of restructuring has been the plaything of dominant masculine forces in Australian society, including the trade union movement, there is no need for this to go unchallenged. It is true that such discourse licenses an unrestrained economism which operates to delegitimise social, cultural and moral claims. The global context which is generating the pressure for the restructuring of the Australian economy is complex. Interpretations of the nature of these pressures vary according to how particular national economies are situated in relation to them. Australia’s situation within the economically dynamic Pacific Basin is a decided advantage. However, it shares in the disadvantages of what become evident in this context as an historical overreliance on the export of commodities and an overprotected manufacturing sector.
