2026/01/28 by Yasmin Gunaratnam, Sarah Hamed, Fataneh Farahani · 1 voice
Social Sciences · #Cultural Competency in Health Care #Interdisciplinary Cultural and Social Studies #Racial and Ethnic Identity Research
paper · doi:10.1080/01419870.2026.2615859
openalex publication_date 2026/01/28 · openalex created_date 2026/01/29 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/01
Informed by respective discussions of race as a floating signifier and performative politics, we examine and discuss how empirical evidence is used to secure political authority and camouflage racial thinking. Our focus is on integration-related evidence-based policymaking in Sweden and the United Kingdom, within a broader crisis of public mistrust of politicians, experts and empiricism, and at a time when immigration policy is politically charged. Across four case examples – shadow economies, post-racialism, gendered racialisation and sovereign border power – we identify the symbolic and political effects of the performance of political rationality. Our aim is not to discount the role of empirical inquiry and evidence but to draw attention to the changing styles, grammars and policy mechanisms through which racial classifications continue to gain mainstream legitimacy.