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Article

'It's not racist. It's common sense'. A critical analysis of political discourse around asylum and immigration in the UK

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Citation

Capdevila R & Callaghan J (2007) 'It's not racist. It's common sense'. A critical analysis of political discourse around asylum and immigration in the UK. Journal of Community and Applied Social Psychology, 18 (1), pp. 1-16. https://doi.org/10.1002/casp.904

Abstract
This paper looks at a political speech given by the leader of the opposition party during the run up to the UK elections in 2005. Using this speech as a starting point, we attempt to trace the path of ¡®racism¡¯ within a text that makes explicit claims to being ¡®not racist¡¯. Drawing on a number of theoretical and methodological resources, this paper approaches the analysis by focusing on a number of conceptually heterogeneous elements that, in relation with each other, function to produce, re©\produce and stabilize ¡®racism¡¯. One of the difficulties commonly encountered in social psychological work, we would suggest, is that an explicit statement of allegiance to a particular methodological and theoretical tradition can also result in a restriction of theorization to a particular ¡®level of analysis¡¯. That is to say, a methodological process that constructs a pre©\given category, presets the criteria by which ¡®racism¡¯ can be identified and fixes the ¡®level of analysis¡¯ at which it can be studied risks ignoring the multiple points of contact at which ¡®racism¡¯ can be made visible or made to disappear. The concern here it that such a process can work to reinscribe the very ¡®racisms¡¯ we aim to disrupt

Keywords
immigration; asylum; refugees; discourse analysis; race; racism; conservative party; Michael Howard

Journal
Journal of Community and Applied Social Psychology: Volume 18, Issue 1

StatusPublished
Publication date19/12/2007
Publication date online05/12/2007
Date accepted by journal12/09/2006
ISSN1052-9284
eISSN1099-1298

People (1)

Professor Jane Callaghan

Professor Jane Callaghan

Director Child Wellbeing & Protection, Social Work

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