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This paper argues for a reconsideration of social cohesion as an analytical concept and a policy goal in response to increasing levels of religious diversity in contemporary Australia. In recent decades, Australian has seen a revitalization of religion, increasing numbers of those who do not identify with a religion (the “nones”), and the growth of religious minorities, including Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism, and Sikhism. These changes are often understood as problematic for social cohesion. In this paper, we review some conceptualizations of social cohesion and religious diversity in Australia, arguing that the concept of social cohesion, despite its initial promise, is ultimately problematic, particularly when it is used to defend privilege. We survey Australian policy responses to religious diversity, noting that these are varied, often piecemeal, and that the hyperdiverse state of Victoria generally has the most sophisticated set of public policies. We conclude with a call for more nuanced and contextualized analyses of religious diversity and social cohesion in Australia. Religious diversity presents both opportunities as well as challenges to social cohesion. Both these aspects need to be considered in the formation of policy responses.

This article examines the role of legal frameworks and everyday interaction in the negotiation of religious diversity in Victoria, Australia. We argue that both formal legal frameworks and everyday interactions are significant in encouraging the respectful negotiation of religious difference. Experiences of historical privilege and visibility impact how religious people and groups experience and understand these processes. Or, put another way, the social position of various faith groups in Australian society shapes how people engage with both legal frameworks such as anti-discrimination legislation, and with other people in everyday interaction. Further, people’s everyday interactions shape their responses towards legal frameworks. Anti-discrimination and anti-vilification laws also shape everyday interactions through an effect that can be described as the ‘shadow of the law’, in which legal decisions communicate information about normative expectations that particular forms of behaviour are acceptable or unacceptable.

Alda Balthrop-Lewis, Thoreau’s Religion: Walden Woods, Social Justice, and the Politics of Asceticism. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2021, pp. 308, ISBN: 978-1-108-83510-7 (hbk).

This article explores how bushwalking in Tasmania, Australia functions as a performance of ‘everyday resistance’. ‘Everyday resistance’ refers to experiences of relationship with the nonhuman, through which individuals resist alienating and dominating forms of human–nonhuman engagements encouraged by central Western cultural narratives. The work of Tasmanian environmental activists is easily understood as ‘political’, encouraging ‘counter-narratives’ of critical forms of human–nonhuman engagement. Drawing from interviews conducted with 27 Tasmanians, this article contends that participants’ descriptions of their forest experiences reflect these same forms of counter-narrative. As such, I argue that personal experiences perform an important role as critical, resistant, and disruptive representations of human–nonhuman engagement. This radical power is easily overlooked, however, as such everyday activities lack the visibility, intelligibility, and intent of organised environmental activism. I therefore argue that forest experiences should be recognised as a performance of relational, compassionate connection with the nonhuman that is vital, dynamic, and often underestimated in its significance.