‘Sometimes there’s racism towards the French here’: xenophobic microaggressions in pre-2016 London as articulations of symbolic violence

Huc-Hepher, S. 2019. ‘Sometimes there’s racism towards the French here’: xenophobic microaggressions in pre-2016 London as articulations of symbolic violence. National Identities . 23 (1), pp. 15-39. https://doi.org/10.1080/14608944.2019.1649250

Title‘Sometimes there’s racism towards the French here’: xenophobic microaggressions in pre-2016 London as articulations of symbolic violence
TypeJournal article
AuthorsHuc-Hepher, S.
Abstract

This article discusses xenophobic microaggressions (Pierce, 1970) experienced by members of the French community in London prior to the EU-Membership Referendum in 2016. Acting at the interface of agency and passivity, implicitness and complicity, they go unseen in the social space despite their omnipresence. Through a close reading of empirical data collected as part of an ethnographic study, the article posits that these microaggressions are articulations of historically embedded anti-French ‘symbolic violence’ (Bourdieu and Wacquant, 1992; Bourdieu, 1993). The three main areas addressed are humour, intersectionality and the reproductive nature of the phenomenon (Bourdieu and Passeron, 1970; Bourdieu, 1972).

Keywordssymbolic violence, xenophobic microaggressions, intersectionality, reproduction, French community
JournalNational Identities
Journal citation23 (1), pp. 15-39
ISSN1460-8944
1469-9907
Year2019
PublisherTaylor & Francis
Accepted author manuscript
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)https://doi.org/10.1080/14608944.2019.1649250
Web address (URL)http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/14608944.2019.1649250
Publication dates
Published online05 Aug 2019
Published in printJan 2021

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