“It's ok if it's hidden”: The discursive construction of everyday racism for refugees and asylum seekers in Wales

Wales has a long history of migration; however, the introduction of dispersed asylum seekers in 2001 has led to Wales becoming a more superdiverse nation. Wales has often been positioned as a more “tolerant nation” than England; however, the increasingly superdiverse nature of Wales in a postdevolution era may now be calling this tolerance thesis into question. Models of refugee and asylum seeker integration suggest that the absence of racism plays a key role in integration. This paper reports the findings of research that centres on refugee and asylum seeker integration in Wales. Nineteen interviews were conducted with refugees and asylum seekers who had been living in Wales for between 1 month and 12 years. Each interview was analysed using a discursive psychology approach. In this paper, I show that the interviewees appeared to negotiate a dilemma when talking about experiencing potentially racist incidents within the interviews, constructing them as trivial so as not to appear critical of the protection they have received in Wales. The findings also highlight the more everyday and banal forms of racism that are regularly experienced by refugees and asylum seekers living in Wales.     

‘I Can't Go Back Because If I Go Back I Would Die’: How Asylum Seekers Manage Talk about Returning Home by Highlighting the Importance of Safety

Asylum seekers living in the UK have been shown to have fled danger in their countries of origin, only to face hardship and the threat of deportation once there. This paper draws on the discursive psychological approach to address the way in which asylum seekers in the UK manage questions about returning to their country of origin. Interviews were conducted with nine asylum seekers in a refugee support centre in the Midlands. The interviews were transcribed and analysed using discourse analysis. The analysis showed that participants drew on the notion of safety to counter suggestions that they should return to their country of origin and to manage their identity as legitimate asylum seekers in need of support. The use of this strategy and the use of interviews for discursive analysis are discussed. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Cross‐cultural differences in object recognition: Comparing asylum seekers from Sub‐Saharan Africa and a matched Western European control group

Nowadays, more and more people report about their memories in cross‐cultural contexts. In international criminal settings and asylum procedures, object recognition tests can provide valuable information, for example, about weapons used during a crime or landmarks from the claimed region of origin. This study was the first to compare object recognition performance by asylum seekers from Sub‐Saharan Africa to a matched Western European control group. African participants performed worse than European participants on perceptual tests involving transformations from two‐ to three‐dimensional representations, but both groups performed equally well on an object recognition test that involved transformation from three‐ to two‐dimensional representations. However, African participants were significantly more likely to respond “yes” on the recognition test (i.e., an acquiescence response style) than European participants. Our findings elucidate cultural differences in responding on an object recognition test. Judges, juries, and immigration officials would be wise to take these differences into account when evaluating recognition performance in cross‐cultural contexts.     

‘I don't think racism is that bad any more’: Exploring the ‘end of racism’ discourse among students in English schools

In this paper, we present findings on lay constructions of racism from a focus group study (11 groups, n = 72) with a mixed sample of secondary‐school students in England. We show that racism was, on the whole, ‘othered’: It was located in other times, places, and people or was denied altogether. We show that this way of talking about racism had different uses depending on the identity stakes involved in different interactional contexts. Even in the cases where racism was constructed as common, participants worked hard to make an ‘irrefutable’ argument, which suggests that they were anticipating reputational damage by making a claim for the persistence of racism. We discuss these findings with regard to the different levels of analysis involved in constructions of racism (micro‐interactional, local and broader normative context) and with regard to an ‘end of racism’ discourse that appeared to provide the normative framework for participants' accounts.     

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

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. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Beyond ‘nothing to hide’: When identity is key to privacy threat under surveillance

Privacy is psychologically important, vital for democracy, and in the era of ubiquitous and mobile surveillance technology, facing increasingly complex threats and challenges. Yet surveillance is often justified under a trope that one has ‘nothing to hide’. We conducted focus groups (N = 42) on topics of surveillance and privacy and using discursive analysis, identify the ideological assumptions and the positions that people adopt to make sense of their participation in a surveillance society. We find a premise that surveillance is increasingly inescapable, but this was only objected to when people reported feeling misrepresented, or where they had an inability to withhold aspects of their identities. The (in)visibility of the surveillance technology also complicated how surveillance is constructed. Those interested in engaging the public in debates about surveillance may be better served by highlighting the identity consequences of surveillance, rather than constructing surveillance as a generalised privacy threat.     

‘I bet you know more and are nicer too!’: what children infer from others’ accuracy

Research has shown that preschoolers monitor others’ prior accuracy and prefer to learn from individuals who have the best track record. We investigated the scope of preschoolers’ attributions based on an individual’s prior accuracy. Experiment 1 revealed that 5‐year‐olds (but not 4‐year‐olds) used an individual’s prior accuracy at labelling to predict her knowledge of words and broader facts; they also showed a ‘halo effect’ predicting she would be more prosocial. Experiment 2 confirmed that, overall, 4‐year‐olds did not make explicit generalizations of knowledge. These findings suggest that an individual’s prior accuracy influences older preschoolers’ expectations of that individual’s broader knowledge as well as their impressions of how she will behave in social interactions.     

Representing the ‘other’: a discursive analysis of prejudice and moral exclusion in talk about Romanies

This article investigates the particulars of prejudiced and moral exclusion discourse about ethnic minorities in a Romanian socio‐cultural context. It examines in detail the discourse of middle‐class Romanian professionals taking up different ideological positions on the issue of the fairness of extremist politics towards ethnic minorities. A comparison is made between participants ‘supporting’ extremist politics and those ‘opposing’ this kind of politics to see whether there are differences in the way participants from both categories talk about the Romanies. It is suggested that a very similar expression of moral exclusion discourse is to be found across both positions, a very similar use of various discursive and rhetorical strategies to blame the Romanies and ‘naturalize’ their characteristics, position them beyond the moral order, nationhood and difference. The analysis, inspired by a critical discursive approach will focus on the construction of ideological representations of Romanies. In examining prejudiced and moral exclusion discourse against Romanies, this article constitutes an attempt to understand the situated dynamics of prejudice and some of the ways in which particular ways of talking delegitimize and, sometimes, dehumanize the ‘other’. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Motivated responses to ‘senseless’ violence: explaining emotional and behavioural responses through person and position identification

We integrate and extend insights from just world theory (Lerner, 1980 ), appraisal and attribution theories of emotion (e.g. Scherer, Schorr, & Johnstone, 2001 ; Weiner, 1995 ), and the sacred value protection model (Tetlock, Kirstel, Elson, Green, & Lerner, 2000 ) to explain observers' emotional and behavioural responses to incidents of so‐called ‘senseless’ violence. The presence or absence of an opportunity to blame a victim for his or her violent fate resulted in stronger perceptions of ‘senselessness’ of the violence, stronger identification with the victim's suffering (i.e. person identification) and stronger identification with his or her violent fate (i.e. position identification). The presence or absence of an opportunity to blame the victim also influenced observers' feelings of anger and pity, and their willingness to protest and help. Importantly, both types of identification helped explain these emotional and behavioural responses. The results of this experiment suggest dual motivations for how observers come to feel and care for victims of ‘senseless’ violence. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

‘Tell us what we need to know to do this!’ Preparing a path to safe uncertainty in assignment writing on a family therapy foundation course

This article describes a single session aimed at helping participants on a family therapy foundation course to move from a position of anxiety and discomfort about completing a written assignment to a position of safe uncertainty. Evaluation from the perspectives of course participants, course facilitators and assignment markers has shown participants engaging more enthusiastically with the writing of the assignment and expressing less anxiety about the process.     

Don't Tell Me What I Don't Want to Hear! Politicization and Ideological Conflict Explain Why Citizens Have Lower Trust in Climate Scientists and Economists Than in Other Natural Scientists

Studies suggest that citizens have higher trust in some groups of scientists than in others. However, we still know little about the causes of these trust gaps. The current study fills this knowledge gap by examining Norwegian citizens' trust in climate scientists, economists, and so-called “less politicized natural scientists.” I argue that trust in climate scientists and economists is lower than trust in less politicized natural scientists because the former fields are politicized, while the latter are not. Politicization strengthens ideological conflicts between citizens' ideology and research produced by climate scientists and economists, which leads to lower trust in these groups of scientists. I test this argument by running regression analyses on data from a representative survey of the Norwegian population. The results support the argument: Citizens have significantly higher trust in less politicized natural scientists than in both climate scientists and economists, and these differences can be explained by ideological biases in trust. Citizens with a proeconomic growth ideology have significantly lower trust in climate scientists than in less politicized natural scientists, and citizens with a left-wing economic ideology have significantly lower trust in economists than in less politicized natural scientists.     

‘In my agency it's very clear – but I can't tell you what it is’: Work settings and ethical challenges

This study aims to increase our understanding of how counsellors experience ethical and legal challenges in their work. Counsellors (n=20) from a variety of backgrounds and working in a range of settings, took part in the study. Interviews focused on the experience of risks of harm, requests for information, record keeping; and the sources of knowledge and expertise on which practitioners drew. The study found that in responding to ethical and legal challenges, practitioners are engaged in a process of negotiation between the inner and outer worlds of the client, the agency, society and themselves. Regardless of theoretical orientation, those in private practice have greater freedom from the constraints of the outer worlds than those in agencies. Areas of particular concern included child protection, multi‐agency working, and relationships with other practitioners.     

‘Though he slay me,yet will I trust in him’: a critical reconstruction of Winnicott's theory of value

This paper extrapolates an outline for a theory of value from Winnicott's reflections on war in ‘Discussion of war aims’ (1940). The author treats Winnicott's discussion as an occasion for a critical reconstruction of his theory of life‐values. He discerns an implicit set of distinctions in Winnicott's reflections on war, including different orders of value (existential, ethical, and psychosocial); a distinction between maturity and necessity; and a yet more fundamental distinction between violence and brutality. The paper argues, on the basis of these distinctions, that Winnicott allows for an understanding of one's encounter with the enemy as an ethical relation. The main argument of the paper is that the ethical attitude underpins recognition of the enemy's humanity. On a more critical note, the author argues that Winnicott doesn't adhere consistently to the ethical attitude he presupposes, that in certain passages he privileges the maturity of combatants over the humanity of the enemy.     

‘I think motherhood for me was a bit like a double‐edged sword’: the narratives of older mothers

It is assumed in Western society that women want to become mothers. This desire is situated within the ideology of the ‘perfect mother’. However, feminists have highlighted contradictions between this ideology and the reality of mothering. A trend towards later motherhood has recently been identified. Delayed motherhood has been associated with a number of advantages such as a sense of psychological readiness, however this may mask some of its negative aspects. The aim of the study reported here was to explore the transition to, and lived experience of, delayed motherhood. Five women who were over 30 prior to the birth of their first child were interviewed. A narrative analysis at the personal, interpersonal and societal levels was conducted. At the personal level, diverse stories which contained both problems in adapting to motherhood and also progressive aspects of positive experiences and integration of maternal identities were told. At the interpersonal level, the prominence of the ‘double‐edged’ tone conveyed maternal ambivalence. At the societal level, dominant ideologies of the ‘good mother’ and normative development were identified. Though the women actively constructed their stories and attempted to resist dominant representations, this analysis emphasises the need for more realistic portrayals of delayed motherhood. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

From ‘Virgin Births’ to ‘Octomom’: Representations of Single Motherhood via Sperm Donation in the UK News

The use of sperm donation by single women has provoked public, professional and political debate. Newspapers serve as a critical means of both broadcasting this debate and effecting a representation of this user group within the public sphere. This study uses the theory of social representations to examine how single motherhood by sperm donation has been represented in the UK news over time. The study sampled news coverage on this topic in eight British newspapers during three 4‐year periods between the years 1988 and 2012. The dataset of news reports (n = 406) was analysed using a qualitative approach. Findings indicated that UK media reports of single women using donor sperm are underpinned by conventional categories of the ‘personal’, the ‘traditional’ and the ‘natural’ that when paired with their corollaries produce a representation of this user group as the social ‘other’. The amount of coverage on this topic over time was found to vary according to the political orientation of different media sources. Using key concepts from social representations theory, this article discusses the relationship between themata and anchoring in the maintenance of representations of the social ‘other’ in mass mediated communication. Findings are explained in relation to theoretical conceptions of the mass media and its position within the public sphere. It is argued that the use of personal narratives in news reports of single mothers by sperm donation may have significant implications for public understandings of this social group. © 2016 The Authors. Journal of Community & Applied Social Psychology published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.     

‘They were brilliant,I don't know what I would've done if they hadn't been here’: the group concept problem revisited

This article concerns the group concept problem in people labelled as having learning disabilities, described in a series of papers by Gibbons and colleagues (Gibbons, 1981 , 1985a , 1985b ; Gibbons & Gibbons, 1980 ; Gibbons & Kassin, 1982 ). We argue that the interpretations of these studies are questionable, and alternative explanations for the patterns of results found are possible. Examples from a study in which people with the label talked about particular others who also have the label are presented. In these examples, the category was not represented as homogeneous, relationships with others were valued, and a desire for distance was only found when participants talked about people who behaved aggressively. The findings are discussed with reference to the social model of disability. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

‘Bound in a nutshell’: Thoughts on complexity,reductionism, and ‘infinite space’1

Pluralism is the hallmark of 21st century psychoanalytic discourse. Nevertheless, an unpleasant byproduct of pluralism is a tendency in some quarters to retreat into orthodoxy, stemming from a perceived need to shore up theoretical boundaries in the service of differentiating one theory from another. The delineation of borders places us at a risk of losing sight of the fact that genuine psychoanalytic thinking is fundamentally non‐reductionistic. Moreover, the core psychoanalytic notion of overdetermination, which Freud never abandoned throughout his career, has recently been neglected as authors argue in their communications that one point of view is better than another. Both analysts and their patients secretly are drawn to simple formulations that eschew complexity. The need to remain open to the ‘infinite space’ of meaning, motive, and causation should be a hallmark of clinical psychoanalytic practice. The author considers the implications for technique, and provides case material to illustrate some of the challenges inherent in approaching psychoanalytic work as a complex phenomenon.