Political Languages of Race and the Politics of Exclusion (Research in Ethnic Relations) Book

The aim of this book is to address both a theoretical and empirical gap in existing studies concerning the role of political languages and racial ideologies in constructing migrant populations as divisive and problematic entities within the body politic and national territory. The book develops a discursive approach to the question of language and power in the signification and exclusion of racialized populations, aiming to provide an extended debate and theoretical critique of existing approaches and the development of an alternative hypothesis. This is achieved by means of an extensive examination of empirical evidence derived from parliamentary debates, IRR and ESRC archive material, as well as an extensive content analysis of the speeches and writings of Enoch Powell. The evidence is used to contest existing theories of the new racism and the political economy of migration as well as more modern approaches. The book argues that the peculiar feature of the erasure of race in public and political debate in postwar Britain requires the critique of existing approaches and the development of a new empirical and theoretical synthesis. To this end, the book offers a number of conceptual formulations: the role of the "erasure of race"; political racism; common sense; and post-race significations. It offers a theory of discursive change that replaces notions of new racism and an account of the role of Powellism and its significance which challenges all major existing approaches.Read More