Gargi Bhattacharyya - Academia.edu (original) (raw)
Papers by Gargi Bhattacharyya
Soundings
Gargi Bhattacharyya is Professor of Sociology at the University of East London, UK. They have wri... more Gargi Bhattacharyya is Professor of Sociology at the University of East London, UK. They have written, co-authored and edited/co-edited a very wide range of books, including Tales of Dark-Skinned Women (Routledge 1998); Sexuality and Society (Routledge 2005); Crisis, Austerity and Everyday Life (Palgrave 2015); Race and Power: Global Racism in the twenty-first century (Routledge 2016); Rethinking Racial Capitalism (Rowman and Littlefield 2018); and Empire's Endgame (Pluto 2021). In this online interview, conducted in summer 2021, Gargi talks to Jo Littler about state patriarchy, racial capitalism, dispossession, culture wars, feminism, the England football team, environmental degradation, the state of universities and sex on smartphones.
Ethnic and Racial Studies, Oct 15, 2021
The study of contemporary forms of racism has expanded greatly over the past four decades. Althou... more The study of contemporary forms of racism has expanded greatly over the past four decades. Although it has been a focus for scholarship and research for the past three centuries, it is perhaps over this more recent period that we have seen important transformations in the analytical frames and methods to explore the changing patterns of contemporary racisms. The Routledge International Handbook of Contemporary Racisms brings together thirty-four original chapters from international experts that address key features of contemporary racisms
Ethnic and Racial Studies, Oct 2, 2018
This is a highly readable, insightful and alarming account of the deployment of a discourse of wo... more This is a highly readable, insightful and alarming account of the deployment of a discourse of women’s rights by racist and nationalist movements in Europe. The discussion spans both minority parties and parties of government and provides a detailed account of the policies and politics of this phenomenon in France, the Netherlands and Italy. This very thoughtful and well-written study extends our collective understanding of the intertwining of feminisms, nationalisms and neoliberal social and economic policies. In this, Farris inserts a welcome consideration of economic and social policy in a set of debates that have been focussed more often on matters of bordering, security and conceptualizations of the other. Farris coins the term “femonationalism” to describe this awkward alliance between feminists, nationalists and neoliberals, and explains her analysis as a matter of convergence. She suggests that we understand “femonationalism as the outcome of convergence” (6), meaning that this is a hybrid that emerges when a number of forces and trajectories come together, an outcome that has its own specifity. This framing allows Farris to level some quite sharp criticisms, particularly in relation to the active alliances that feminists have built with those explicitly nationalist and neoliberal agendas. She writes,
American Journal of Sociology, 2020
Manchester University Press eBooks, Mar 31, 2017
List of figures page viii Notes on authors ix Acknowledgements xiii Note on terminology xvi 1 Int... more List of figures page viii Notes on authors ix Acknowledgements xiii Note on terminology xvi 1 Introduction 1 Living Research One: Why are we doing this? Public sociology and public life 29 2 Permeable borders, performative politics and public mistrust 37 Living Research Two: Emotions and research 63 3 Immigration and the limits of statistical government 69 Living Research Three: Migration research and the media 88 4 Spaces and places of governance and resistance 95 Living Research Four: Ethics in uncomfortable research situations 5 Un/deserving migrants and resisting dehumanisation Living Research Five: Public anger in research (and social media) 6 Conclusion: 'Ordinary' people and immigration politics Living Research Six: Collaborations Afterword by Kiri Kankhwende Appendix: Further details on research methods Index Yasmin Gunaratnam is a Reader in Sociology at Goldsmiths, University of London I was on research leave and working on migration and transnational dying and care when I heard about the Go Home vans. Questions of belonging, home and hospitality were very much on my mind and I had recently set up my fi rst website for the work. Those two words 'Go Home' hit me in the gut. It was one of those moments when life seemed to swing in an arc, taking me back to a time of childhood and street racism. Now again, a more blatant, unashamed xenophobia seemed to be taking hold. There was talk about scarce resources being depleted by migrants, the term 'health tourists' was being bandied about. The fi rst ever blog post I wrote was about hospitality and the Go Home vans. Emma Jackson and Hannah Jones got in touch with me through Twitter about the post and we began that conversation, 'What can we do?' A few weeks later I was on the High Street in New Cross doing a survey with a group of volunteers, listening to what people had to say about immigration. I ' ve been working for many years on the long shadows of colonialism and its entanglements with social exclusion. What was so appealing about this project was working in partnership with others. The team was a place of lively discussion, a hospitable space.
Manchester University Press eBooks, Mar 31, 2017
Manchester University Press eBooks, Mar 31, 2017
Un/deserving migrants and resisting dehumanisation Satwinder: Those that are good people should b... more Un/deserving migrants and resisting dehumanisation Satwinder: Those that are good people should be given a visa and those who are bad people should be returned. (Ealing and Hounslow focus group, conducted by Sukhwant) Satwinder is someone who migrated to the UK, and who talked to us about the unfair treatment and prejudice she had received since doing so. Yet, her views seem close to the stance taken by the Immigration Minister Mark Harper, quoted in the opening to Chapter 2. Satwinder spoke about herself as having 'earned the right to live or settle in Britain', and others as less deserving of that right. The difference from Harper's 'rational' distinction (based on legal definition) is that here the distinction is being made on openly moral judgements of whether people are 'good' or 'bad'. For Satwinder there are those 'that are working' (good) and there are those that 'get caught up in drink and drugs and should not be here … women drinking and smoking' (bad). A similar sentiment was echoed in a Bradford focus group by Nadia, an Iranian woman who had been settled in the UK for decades and now volunteers at a refugee and asylum seeker group. She said that perhaps it was good that the Go Home van scared some people: Nadia: But I think sometime maybe it's good. Why I say that? I used to have a friend, and I haven't seen her for years, she was Asian, Pakistani, she married another Asian, it took them years to call them here to get married, marriage took only 3 days, he used her 3 days and after third days said, 'I only married to come to this country', and he just vanished. After 2 days they can't find him, so if for people like that I think it's good. (Bradford Focus Group, conducted by Hannah) Though Nadia's example might seem to be more closely concerned with the abuse of immigration rules than Satwinder's, both women
Manchester University Press eBooks, Mar 31, 2017
Our research on Operation Vaken was rooted in several different forms of engagement, with the hop... more Our research on Operation Vaken was rooted in several different forms of engagement, with the hope not only of intervening in social injustices (see Passy, 2001) but also of producing knowledge differently; a less elitist and collaborative knowledge. The root of the word collaboration, from the Latin collaborare-to work together-carries ambivalence. To collaborate can also suggest betrayal, even treachery. Here we discuss what was involved in our research relationships, from those between ourselves as academic activists and 'resisting others' (Autonomous Geographies Collective, 2010: 248) to our work with an established, profit-making research company, which we subsequently found also carried out work for the Home Office. We will try to describe as best we can what we did to deal with conflicting pressures and approaches in our partnerships, highlighting what we learnt. As the feminist theorist Robyn Wiegman (2012) has argued so brilliantly, our attachments to radical alternative futures can often come at a price, including a seductive delusion in how we read and diagnose the status quo and possibilities for transformation. There can be a tendency to close down ambivalence, Weigman believes, in order to tell a particular version of a storyone in which we know best.
Manchester University Press eBooks, Mar 31, 2017
is a Lecturer in Sociology at Goldsmiths, University of London For me, getting involved in the Ma... more is a Lecturer in Sociology at Goldsmiths, University of London For me, getting involved in the Mapping Immigration Controversy project was a practical response to the challenge Hannah posed on Twitter when we were discussing the Go Home vans-which was (paraphrasing) 'there must be something we can do other than talk amongst ourselves?' Sitting in Glasgow, where I was working at the time, I was watching the van campaign and the intensified raids in London from a distance, feeling far away and powerless to do anything helpful. Then the intervention in the UK Border Agency Glasgow offices sparked protest in my new city. So, I was motivated by anger and the urge to 'do something' but I also thought these campaigns raised important sociological questions about the place of border control and the use of emotion in governance. A lot of what I do is about researching questions of belonging, spatial practices and how these are shaped or intersect with forms of power in urban contexts. In this project I've been particularly interested in how anti-immigration interventions feed into the production of particular spaces and places. It also relates to the work I have done with Hannah on emotion and location for our edited book Stories of Cosmopolitan Belonging: Emotion and Location (Routledge/Earthscan, 2014).
How do we make sense of the crisis that is contemporary British life? How are the racism, nationa... more How do we make sense of the crisis that is contemporary British life? How are the racism, nationalism and authoritarianism of the current moment different from the incarnations that have come befor...
Page 1. Tales of dark-skinned women Race, gender and global culture Gargi Bhattacharyya Also avai... more Page 1. Tales of dark-skinned women Race, gender and global culture Gargi Bhattacharyya Also available as a printed book see title verso for ISBN details Page 2. Tales of dark-skinned women Page 3. Race and representation ...
Soundings
Gargi Bhattacharyya is Professor of Sociology at the University of East London, UK. They have wri... more Gargi Bhattacharyya is Professor of Sociology at the University of East London, UK. They have written, co-authored and edited/co-edited a very wide range of books, including Tales of Dark-Skinned Women (Routledge 1998); Sexuality and Society (Routledge 2005); Crisis, Austerity and Everyday Life (Palgrave 2015); Race and Power: Global Racism in the twenty-first century (Routledge 2016); Rethinking Racial Capitalism (Rowman and Littlefield 2018); and Empire's Endgame (Pluto 2021). In this online interview, conducted in summer 2021, Gargi talks to Jo Littler about state patriarchy, racial capitalism, dispossession, culture wars, feminism, the England football team, environmental degradation, the state of universities and sex on smartphones.
Ethnic and Racial Studies, Oct 15, 2021
The study of contemporary forms of racism has expanded greatly over the past four decades. Althou... more The study of contemporary forms of racism has expanded greatly over the past four decades. Although it has been a focus for scholarship and research for the past three centuries, it is perhaps over this more recent period that we have seen important transformations in the analytical frames and methods to explore the changing patterns of contemporary racisms. The Routledge International Handbook of Contemporary Racisms brings together thirty-four original chapters from international experts that address key features of contemporary racisms
Ethnic and Racial Studies, Oct 2, 2018
This is a highly readable, insightful and alarming account of the deployment of a discourse of wo... more This is a highly readable, insightful and alarming account of the deployment of a discourse of women’s rights by racist and nationalist movements in Europe. The discussion spans both minority parties and parties of government and provides a detailed account of the policies and politics of this phenomenon in France, the Netherlands and Italy. This very thoughtful and well-written study extends our collective understanding of the intertwining of feminisms, nationalisms and neoliberal social and economic policies. In this, Farris inserts a welcome consideration of economic and social policy in a set of debates that have been focussed more often on matters of bordering, security and conceptualizations of the other. Farris coins the term “femonationalism” to describe this awkward alliance between feminists, nationalists and neoliberals, and explains her analysis as a matter of convergence. She suggests that we understand “femonationalism as the outcome of convergence” (6), meaning that this is a hybrid that emerges when a number of forces and trajectories come together, an outcome that has its own specifity. This framing allows Farris to level some quite sharp criticisms, particularly in relation to the active alliances that feminists have built with those explicitly nationalist and neoliberal agendas. She writes,
American Journal of Sociology, 2020
Manchester University Press eBooks, Mar 31, 2017
List of figures page viii Notes on authors ix Acknowledgements xiii Note on terminology xvi 1 Int... more List of figures page viii Notes on authors ix Acknowledgements xiii Note on terminology xvi 1 Introduction 1 Living Research One: Why are we doing this? Public sociology and public life 29 2 Permeable borders, performative politics and public mistrust 37 Living Research Two: Emotions and research 63 3 Immigration and the limits of statistical government 69 Living Research Three: Migration research and the media 88 4 Spaces and places of governance and resistance 95 Living Research Four: Ethics in uncomfortable research situations 5 Un/deserving migrants and resisting dehumanisation Living Research Five: Public anger in research (and social media) 6 Conclusion: 'Ordinary' people and immigration politics Living Research Six: Collaborations Afterword by Kiri Kankhwende Appendix: Further details on research methods Index Yasmin Gunaratnam is a Reader in Sociology at Goldsmiths, University of London I was on research leave and working on migration and transnational dying and care when I heard about the Go Home vans. Questions of belonging, home and hospitality were very much on my mind and I had recently set up my fi rst website for the work. Those two words 'Go Home' hit me in the gut. It was one of those moments when life seemed to swing in an arc, taking me back to a time of childhood and street racism. Now again, a more blatant, unashamed xenophobia seemed to be taking hold. There was talk about scarce resources being depleted by migrants, the term 'health tourists' was being bandied about. The fi rst ever blog post I wrote was about hospitality and the Go Home vans. Emma Jackson and Hannah Jones got in touch with me through Twitter about the post and we began that conversation, 'What can we do?' A few weeks later I was on the High Street in New Cross doing a survey with a group of volunteers, listening to what people had to say about immigration. I ' ve been working for many years on the long shadows of colonialism and its entanglements with social exclusion. What was so appealing about this project was working in partnership with others. The team was a place of lively discussion, a hospitable space.
Manchester University Press eBooks, Mar 31, 2017
Manchester University Press eBooks, Mar 31, 2017
Un/deserving migrants and resisting dehumanisation Satwinder: Those that are good people should b... more Un/deserving migrants and resisting dehumanisation Satwinder: Those that are good people should be given a visa and those who are bad people should be returned. (Ealing and Hounslow focus group, conducted by Sukhwant) Satwinder is someone who migrated to the UK, and who talked to us about the unfair treatment and prejudice she had received since doing so. Yet, her views seem close to the stance taken by the Immigration Minister Mark Harper, quoted in the opening to Chapter 2. Satwinder spoke about herself as having 'earned the right to live or settle in Britain', and others as less deserving of that right. The difference from Harper's 'rational' distinction (based on legal definition) is that here the distinction is being made on openly moral judgements of whether people are 'good' or 'bad'. For Satwinder there are those 'that are working' (good) and there are those that 'get caught up in drink and drugs and should not be here … women drinking and smoking' (bad). A similar sentiment was echoed in a Bradford focus group by Nadia, an Iranian woman who had been settled in the UK for decades and now volunteers at a refugee and asylum seeker group. She said that perhaps it was good that the Go Home van scared some people: Nadia: But I think sometime maybe it's good. Why I say that? I used to have a friend, and I haven't seen her for years, she was Asian, Pakistani, she married another Asian, it took them years to call them here to get married, marriage took only 3 days, he used her 3 days and after third days said, 'I only married to come to this country', and he just vanished. After 2 days they can't find him, so if for people like that I think it's good. (Bradford Focus Group, conducted by Hannah) Though Nadia's example might seem to be more closely concerned with the abuse of immigration rules than Satwinder's, both women
Manchester University Press eBooks, Mar 31, 2017
Our research on Operation Vaken was rooted in several different forms of engagement, with the hop... more Our research on Operation Vaken was rooted in several different forms of engagement, with the hope not only of intervening in social injustices (see Passy, 2001) but also of producing knowledge differently; a less elitist and collaborative knowledge. The root of the word collaboration, from the Latin collaborare-to work together-carries ambivalence. To collaborate can also suggest betrayal, even treachery. Here we discuss what was involved in our research relationships, from those between ourselves as academic activists and 'resisting others' (Autonomous Geographies Collective, 2010: 248) to our work with an established, profit-making research company, which we subsequently found also carried out work for the Home Office. We will try to describe as best we can what we did to deal with conflicting pressures and approaches in our partnerships, highlighting what we learnt. As the feminist theorist Robyn Wiegman (2012) has argued so brilliantly, our attachments to radical alternative futures can often come at a price, including a seductive delusion in how we read and diagnose the status quo and possibilities for transformation. There can be a tendency to close down ambivalence, Weigman believes, in order to tell a particular version of a storyone in which we know best.
Manchester University Press eBooks, Mar 31, 2017
is a Lecturer in Sociology at Goldsmiths, University of London For me, getting involved in the Ma... more is a Lecturer in Sociology at Goldsmiths, University of London For me, getting involved in the Mapping Immigration Controversy project was a practical response to the challenge Hannah posed on Twitter when we were discussing the Go Home vans-which was (paraphrasing) 'there must be something we can do other than talk amongst ourselves?' Sitting in Glasgow, where I was working at the time, I was watching the van campaign and the intensified raids in London from a distance, feeling far away and powerless to do anything helpful. Then the intervention in the UK Border Agency Glasgow offices sparked protest in my new city. So, I was motivated by anger and the urge to 'do something' but I also thought these campaigns raised important sociological questions about the place of border control and the use of emotion in governance. A lot of what I do is about researching questions of belonging, spatial practices and how these are shaped or intersect with forms of power in urban contexts. In this project I've been particularly interested in how anti-immigration interventions feed into the production of particular spaces and places. It also relates to the work I have done with Hannah on emotion and location for our edited book Stories of Cosmopolitan Belonging: Emotion and Location (Routledge/Earthscan, 2014).
How do we make sense of the crisis that is contemporary British life? How are the racism, nationa... more How do we make sense of the crisis that is contemporary British life? How are the racism, nationalism and authoritarianism of the current moment different from the incarnations that have come befor...
Page 1. Tales of dark-skinned women Race, gender and global culture Gargi Bhattacharyya Also avai... more Page 1. Tales of dark-skinned women Race, gender and global culture Gargi Bhattacharyya Also available as a printed book see title verso for ISBN details Page 2. Tales of dark-skinned women Page 3. Race and representation ...