Justifying Multiculturalism: Social Justice, Diversity and National Identity in Australia and New Zealand
Multiculturalism has been criticised for emphasising cultural recognition over resource redistribution for minority cultural and ethnic groups. Moreover, critics argue that cultural diversity fails to provide enough common ground upon which to sustain civic nationalism. This paper examines the development of multiculturalist and biculturalist policies in Australia and New Zealand, and argues that these have in fact been justified in terms of a negotiated balance between two civic values: the value of diverse cultural expression, and social justice understood in egalitarian terms. The tension between these values has shaped the debate around multiculturalism in both cases. Both the social justice and value of cultural diversity arguments are deployed to reinforce conceptions of national identity in Australia and New Zealand.
The political uses of minority cultures
The debate over multiculturalism in liberal societies has focussed on the relationship between cultural membership, individual identity, and individual rights and freedoms. But the discourse of cultural recognition, both indigenous and polyethnic, should also be examined for the ways in which it is deployed by states to further their domestic and foreign policy agendas. Analysis of the discourse around multiculturalism and biculturalism in Australia and New Zealand shows that diversity has been promoted to niche market national industries in a global market, and to reinforce neoliberal economic policies, through encouraging voluntary association, and the devolution of service provision from the state to civil society organizations. Cultural rights are promoted as alternatives to substantial economic redistribution, and to the transfer of ownership to indigenous groups of natural resources. Finally, traditional cultural values of community, belonging and solidarity supply values absent from neoliberal discourse.
Linear Programming in the Allocation of Milk Resources for Cheese Making
Abstract To use linear programming, the cheese making process can be modeled as a resource conversion process. The relationship between input milk resources and output products can be analyzed using mass balance assumptions. The variables used in the linear programming model will represent the pounds of each milk resource chosen to formulate a vat of cheese milk. Additional variables will be used to represent the pounds of cream to be removed from a milk resource that has the potential to have cream removed. Three objectives that could be considered are 1) maximize net returns, 2) maximize cheese yield, or 3) minimize cost. A hypothetical example is used to illustrate how the cheese making process can be modeled. This linear programming model depends on formulas that relate ratio of casein to fat of milk to the fat on the dry basis of the cheese. Sensitivity analysis is performed to determine at what cost a milk resource not in the optimal formulation will replace a milk resource currently in the optimal formulation. The linear programming model can be an effective management tool in the allocation of milk resources for cheese making.