Gargi Bhattacharyya

Race and power : global racism in the twenty-first century

Part 1: Identities 1. Whiteness 2. Race Mixture and People of Mixed Origins in Western Societies Part 2: Bodies 3. Economics, Racialization and Globalization 4. Sexualising Racism Part 3: Locations 5. Diasporas, Populations, Scares and New Aesthetics 6. Globalization and Local Economies

Crisis, Austerity, and Everyday Life: Living in a Time of Diminishing Expectations

For Gargi Bhattacharyya, austerity is a time-limited campaign that mobilises an economic crisis for extreme and unexpected measures. Although austerity appears differently in various national contexts, shared aspects include an attack on pension rights and the extension of working life; the scaling back of welfare entitlements and embedding of conditionality into the welfare state; and a greatly deregulated labour market. Her discussion of austerity in this book can be divided roughly into two sections. The first three chapters discuss the trends that enabled austerity to ‘remake common-sense’ (p. 25) and exist with general popular consent. Drawing on Stuart Hall, Bhattacharyya contrasts Thatcherism with austerity, noting that there is no ‘aspirational’ figure of austerity. Instead, a sense that the global economy is out of human control, and therefore immune from political intervention, serves to institutionalise despair and depress expectations. We accept that austerity is necessary, even as we are aware that we cannot hope to ‘win’ at austerity. We do realise, however, that things could become even worse for us, and that even the affluent can fall through the cracks. Bhattacharya identifies an important slippage from ‘they are not worthy’ to ‘we are not worthy’. While there has long been recognition that welfare state retrenchment is accompanied by a discourse of ‘deservingness’, the discussion of how austerity differs from preceding neo-liberal restructuring and, in particular, the insight that the political class is no longer trying to gain ‘consent’ from the electorate by suggesting that they could be among the ‘deserving’ are important and innovative.

Will These Emergencies Never End? Some First Thoughts about the Impact of Economic and Security Crises on Everyday Life

In a time of crisis there is a question about the extent to which previous approaches to understanding can fit to the fast moving terrain that lies before us. In many ways we are clearly living through a period of accelerated and immense change, for many groups of people in many parts of the world. Whatever the shortcomings of the so-called global economy, the apparently endless restructuring of local economy in response to the pressures and pulls of that nebulous creature the global market continues to result in large-scale population movement (Cohen, 2006), the growth of mega-slums (Davis, 2006), the dispossession of rural communities (Manyathi, 2008), and greater and greater immiseration of labour, perhaps most of all in those spaces that seek to manufacture the frippery of throwaway consumer society (Huang, 2009).

Introduction: race critical public scholarship

In a climate marked by expanding scholarship in ethnic and racial studies alongside sweeping changes in universities and the conditions of academic work, we seek to explore the nature of and challenges for critically engaged research, teaching and scholarship on race and racism. In particular, we look at the connection between academic scholarship and political engagement and activity that we are calling race critical public scholarship. We situate the discussion within various recent debates about universities and ‘publics’, and the public orientation and reach of academic work. We set out three frames for these issues: the impact of social movements in establishing race and racism as legitimate topics of academic investigation and setting the agenda for race research; the differing role of academics as public intellectuals and scholar-activists in addressing and engaging with publics and race issues; and the scope and limits of public sociology in addressing the responsibilities and institutionalized power of the academy. We argue that each of these frames offers a partial insight, but that further work is needed based on cases and examples that explore the facility for and challenges of undertaking race critical scholarship.

Racial Neoliberal Britain

The rush to label all recent social, economic and political phenomena as neoliberal is reminiscent of discussions of postmodernism — sometimes particular terms seep between sub-disciplines and are exchanged as a kind of cipher for a broader sensibility, in this case, the suspicion that economics might matter after all. However, as with previous catch-all terms, the explanatory value of the term may be limited or so expansive that it is hard for us to speak meaningfully to each other (see Ferguson 2009). If we are to take neoliberalism as a frame through which to understand the remaking of global racism but with local configurations, then there may be some value in considering again what we mean when we name our neoliberal times. After all, the point of sharing these catch-all terms is to enhance our shared understanding, even if we may continue to disagree on the details of what is happening and why it matters. As a result, what follows is largely an exercise in clarification, to try to think again about the term ‘neoliberalism’ and what it might signify in the concept ‘racial neoliberalism’. I use this discussion to consider the suggestion that neoliberalism is in crisis and perhaps has been for some time, and how plausible such a suggestion is in relation to racial neoliberalism in Britain. This leads to a reconsideration of the definition of racial neoliberalism and its applicability to Britain, and of the impact of austerity measures on these patterns of racism.

Sex, shopping and security:thinking about feminist media studies again

Ten years ago, I still believed that media could be categorised into mainstream and other, into media created and distributed by large wealthy organisations that could reach a mass audience and media that relied on the love and limited resources of more independent souls as both producers and audiences. I was pretty sure that, despite the minority pursuits of new technologies, print, television, radio and film were the forms that saturated most people’s lives. Certainly, these were the forms that seemed to make sense transnationally, and web-based media seemed a very Western and limited arena for expression, entertainment or communication. Of course, media production and consumption have altered beyond recognition in the last decade. Most importantly, for my interests, the depiction and interpretation of the world has extended to include web-based accounts from many quarters. Whereas once I believed that powerful actors shaped available views of reality through the overwhelming presence of mainstreammedia, now I am not so sure. The widespread growth of scepticism towards mainstream media, particularly in relation to accounts of conflict and politics (Ralph Berenger 2004), and the easy accessibility of many other accounts of the world (almost certainly including someone somewhere with whom the viewer/reader can agree) have reshaped our collective imagination and understanding (Douglas Ahlers 2006; Chris Greer & Eugene McLaughlin 2010). All sorts of dissenting views can be circulated via blogs and websites, with followers swapping links and offering alternative interpretations. The information that emerges in alternative outlets can become an influential commentary on mainstream media accounts—as in the incident in July 2010 where the website Wikileaks published extensive documentation of US military actions in Afghanistan, including information confirming large numbers of civilian deaths. Equally, increasingly open battles over media meanings lead to shifts in what counts as mainstream media— now including, in the UK context at least, Al-Jazeera and perhaps even Press TV, not only, or even, the BBC. In the aftermath of concerns about embedded journalism (Lee Artz & Yahya Kamalipour 2005; Michael Pfau, Michel Haigh, Mitchell Gettle, Michael Donnelly, Gregory Scott, Dana Warr & Elaine Wittenberg 2004), government interference in broadcast media, war presented as the spectacle of shock and awe, information blackouts in relation to civilian casualties, ongoing controversy about unlawful military aggression, torture and rendition and, in Britain, doubts about the relevance and sustainability of public service broadcasting, viewers are more likely to consider news as something to be assembled and interpreted. Alternative media become a necessary authenticator of mainstream media

How can we live with ourselves? Universities and the attempt to reconcile learning and doing

This article revisits recent debates about the responsibilities of public scholarship. The piece argues that writing in a range of fields has engaged with issues of racism, in particular as racism has been manifested in the ‘war on terror’, but that this discussion has been muted within the sub-field of race and ethnic studies. There is a discussion of the impact of pressures to demonstrate the ‘usefulness’ of research to a wider public and the limits that this can place on the formulation of research. This argument is expanded through consideration of the authors experience of researching and lobbying with community and campaigning groups. The piece goes on to consider the implications of the marketization of higher education for critical scholarship and concludes that there is value in a more ‘private’ sociology that may not be easily accommodated in the marketized university.

Spectatorship and the War on Terror: Creating Consensus through Global Audiences

This paper considers the staging of violence, atrocities, and sexuality in the conduct of the war on terror. The piece discusses the manner in which the terms of the war on terror appear to shut down possible debate and examines the rhetorical and representational strategies that cause this. The paper argues that the war on terror includes a cultural project that seeks to create a consenting global audience. This cultural project appears more diffuse and less immediately instrumental than the military and diplomatic activities of this global battle. The piece argues that it is through the circulation of open secrets and accounts of torture and abuse that a global audience is constructed as both witness and participant in the practices and objectives of the war and that this positioning is designed to corral audience understanding into the suggested narratives of the proponents of the war. Este documento considera el escenario de la violencia, las atrocidades y la sexualidad en la conducta de la guerra contra el terror. El artículo plantea la manera en que los términos de la guerra contra el terror parecen suspender un posible debate y examina las estrategias retóricas y representativas que causaron esto. El documento plantea que la guerra contra el terror incluye un proyecto cultural que busca crear una audiencia global de común acuerdo. Este proyecto cultural parece más difuso y menos útil en el momento, que las actividades militares y diplomáticas de esta batalla global. El artículo sostiene que es mediante la circulación de secretos abiertos y de informes sobre la tortura y el abuso, que se forma una audiencia global tanto testigos como participantes de las prácticas y los objetivos de la guerra y que esa posición está designada a encerrar el conocimiento de la audiencia dentro de los relatos sugeridos por los proponentes de guerra.

Regional Narratives and Post-racial Fantasies in the English Riots

This article considers the manner in which the urban disturbances across England in 2011 were framed in popular and scholarly understanding. The article suggests that the days of rioting are not, in themselves, the events that merit analysis and scrutiny. Instead, we should consider again how we frame urban unrest within a broader analysis of the renegotiation of public space and national identities. The article goes on to consider the representation of regional characters in coverage of the riots and to present an analysis of fantasies of the post-racial that emerged in relation to events in Birmingham.

Race Critical Public Scholarship

This edited collection addresses the challenges for critically engaged research, teaching and scholarship on race and racism in a climate marked by sweeping changes in universities. Each chapter engages with debates about universities and ‘publics’, and the public orientation and reach of academic work. How do these factors play out in the work of scholars pursuing racial and social justice? What are the constraints of the marketised university or the bureaucratised political field or the celebrity-hungry arena of media culture? How can we use scholarly research and knowledge to create different and better meanings and outcomes in any of these places? With a focus on engaged and activist scholarship attuned to theory and practice, the chapters consider these issues in France, the UK, USA and Costa Rica. The chapters include discussions of teaching for social justice, collaborating and advocating for migrant and local communities and deploying scholarly knowledge in political work and the media.