Islamophobia in the National Health Service: an ethnography of institutional racism in PREVENT's counter‐radicalisation policy

Article


Younis, T. and Jadhav, S. 2020. Islamophobia in the National Health Service: an ethnography of institutional racism in PREVENT's counter‐radicalisation policy. Sociology of Health & Illness. 42 (3), pp. 610-626. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-9566.13047
TypeArticle
TitleIslamophobia in the National Health Service: an ethnography of institutional racism in PREVENT's counter‐radicalisation policy
AuthorsYounis, T. and Jadhav, S.
Abstract

In 2015, the UK government made its counter‐radicalisation policy a statutory duty for all National Health Service (NHS) staff. Staff are now tasked to identify and report individuals they suspect may be vulnerable to radicalisation. Prevent training employs a combination of psychological and ideological frames to convey the meaning of radicalisation to healthcare staff, but studies have shown that the threat of terrorism is racialised as well. The guiding question of our ethnography is: how is counter‐radicalisation training understood and practiced by healthcare professionals? A frame analysis draws upon 2 years of ethnographic fieldwork, which includes participant observation in Prevent training and NHS staff interviews. This article demonstrates how Prevent engages in performative colour‐blindness – the active recognition and dismissal of the race frame which associates racialised Muslims with the threat of terrorism. It concludes with a discussion of institutional racism in the NHS – how racialised policies like Prevent impact the minutia of clinical interactions; how the pretence of a ‘post‐racial’ society obscures institutional racism; how psychologisation is integral to the performance of colour‐blindness; and why it is difficult to address the racism associated with colourblind policies which purport to address the threat of the Far‐Right.

KeywordsPublic health, environmental and occupational health, health policy, health (social science)
PublisherWileyBlackwell
JournalSociology of Health & Illness
ISSN0141-9889
Electronic1467-9566
Publication dates
Online17 Dec 2019
Print03 Mar 2020
Publication process dates
Deposited08 Jan 2020
Accepted07 Nov 2019
Output statusPublished
Accepted author manuscript
Copyright Statement

This is the peer reviewed version of the following article: Younis, T. and Jadhav, S. (2020), Islamophobia in the National Health Service: an ethnography of institutional racism in PREVENT's counter‐radicalisation policy. Sociol Health Illn, 42: 610-626, which has been published in final form at https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-9566.13047. This article may be used for non-commercial purposes in accordance with Wiley Terms and Conditions for Use of Self-Archived Versions.

Additional information

This article also appears in the collection: SHI Race & Ethnicity Research
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/toc/10.1002/1467-9566.race-ethni...

Digital Object Identifier (DOI)https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-9566.13047
LanguageEnglish
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