Rip by the Roadside: A Comparative Study of Roadside Memorials in New South Wales, Australia, and Texas, United States

Abstract

The comparative study of roadside memorials in New South Wales, Australia, and Texas, United States, raises questions about the consistency in memorial form and practice between societies with diverse ethnic and religious profiles and different historical backgrounds. This article compares roadside memorials in two societies, and suggests that ethnic and sub-group affiliation accounts for local and individual differences in what is essentially an international phenomenon powered by developments in motoring culture, postmodernism, and globalization. The roadside memorial reclaims public space for the celebration of the individual in a period and place of overwhelming technological and cultural change.