Narratives of Difference in an Age of Austerity (Thinking Gender in Transnational Times)

This book traces the narrative strategies framing austerity policies through an illuminating analysis of policy documents and political discourses, exposing the political consequences for women, racialized minorities and disabled people. While many have critiqued the ways in which austerity has captured the contemporary political narrative, this is the first book to systematically examine how these narratives work to shift the terms within which policy debates about inequality and difference play out. Gedalof’s exceptional readings of these texts pay close attention to the formal qualities of these narratives: the chronologies they impose, their articulation of crisis and resolution, the points of view they construct and the affective registers they deploy. In this manner she argues persuasively that the differences of gender, race, ethnicity and disability have been stitched into the fabric of austerity as excesses that must be disavowed, as reproductive burdens that are too great for the austere state to bear. This innovative, intersectional analysis will appeal to students and scholars of social policy, gender studies, politics and public policy. Acknowledgements 6 Contents 8 1: Introduction: Narrative, Difference, Austerity 10 Why Narrative 13 Austerity, Crisis, Consensus 20 Structure of the Book 28 Bibliography 33 2: Turning Around Equalities 36 Act One: The Equality Strategy 39 Act Two: Reforming the Equality and Human Rights Commission 45 Act Three: Reviewing the Public Sector Equality Duty 54 Bibliography 60 3: Doing the Right Thing: Welfare Reform Narratives and the Crafting of Consent 62 Something for Nothing: Crisis and Resolution 68 The Politics of Address 77 Gender and the Championing of Marriage 81 Bibliography 89 4: Work Yourself Better: The Disabled Person as Benefit Scrounger 91 Labour Amenabilities 93 Preparing the Ground: Centre for Social Justice Documents 95 Coalition Welfare Reform and Disability 98 Fulfilling Potential and the Refusal of Disabled Embodiment 106 Bibliography 117 5: Social JusticeTM(DWP) and the Trouble with Families 119 Rebranding Social Justice 121 Social Justice and the Normative Family 126 Troubling Families 131 Bibliography 146 6: Attachment and Disgust in Narratives of UK Family Migration Policy 149 ‘Families should be able to manage their own lives’ 154 ‘... a genuine attachment to the UK’ 160 ‘Family migration must be based on a real and continuing relationship, not a marriage of convenience or a marriage that is forced or is a sham’ 163 Bibliography 175 7: Places of Sameness: Integration Policy, Localism and the Big Society 177 What Makes ‘the Local’ in Localism and How ‘Big’ Is the Big Society? 180 Multiculturalism, Narratives of Loss and the Common 186 Sameness and Difference in Coalition Integration Strategy 195 Bibliography 208 8: Postscript: November 2016 211 Bibliography 219 Bibliography 220 Index 231 "This book traces the narrative strategies framing austerity policies through an illuminating analysis of policy documents and political discourses, exposing the political consequences for women, racialized minorities and disabled people. While many have critiqued the ways in which austerity has captured the contemporary political narrative, this is the first book to systematically examine how these narratives work to shift the terms within which policy debates about inequality and difference play out. Gedalof's exceptional readings of these texts pay close attention to the formal qualities of these narratives: the chronologies they impose, their articulation of crisis and resolution, the points of view they construct and the affective registers they deploy. In this manner she argues persuasively that the differences of gender, race, ethnicity and disability have been stitched into the fabric of austerity as excesses that must be disavowed, as reproductive burdens that are too great for the austere state to bear."-- Provided by publisher Front Matter ....Pages i-viii Introduction: Narrative, Difference, Austerity (Irene Gedalof)....Pages 1-26 Turning Around Equalities (Irene Gedalof)....Pages 27-52 Doing the Right Thing: Welfare Reform Narratives and the Crafting of Consent (Irene Gedalof)....Pages 53-81 Work Yourself Better: The Disabled Person as Benefit Scrounger (Irene Gedalof)....Pages 83-110 Social JusticeTM(DWP) and the Trouble with Families (Irene Gedalof)....Pages 111-140 Attachment and Disgust in Narratives of UK Family Migration Policy (Irene Gedalof)....Pages 141-168 Places of Sameness: Integration Policy, Localism and the Big Society (Irene Gedalof)....Pages 169-202 Postscript: November 2016 (Irene Gedalof)....Pages 203-211 Back Matter ....Pages 213-230