Veiled women in the West appear menacing. Their visible invisibility is a cause of obsession. What is beneath the veil more than a woman? This book investigates the preoccupation with the veiled body through the imaging and imagining of Muslim women. It examines the relationship between the body and knowledge through the politics of freedom as grounded in a ‘natural’ body, in the index of flesh. The impulse to unveil is more than a desire to free the Muslim woman. What lies at the heart of the fantasy of saving the Muslim woman is the West’s desire to save itself. The preoccupation with the veiled woman is a defense that preserves neither the object of orientalism nor the difference embodied in women’s bodies, but inversely, insists on the corporeal boundaries of the West’s mode of knowing and truth-making. The book contends that the imagination of unveiling restores the West’s sense of its own power and enables it to intrude where it is ‘other’ – thus making it the centre and the agent by promising universal freedom, all the while stifling the question of what freedom is.

In an increasingly globalized world, there are new economic, strategic, cultural, and political forces at work. The Political Psychology of Globalization: Muslims in the West explores how these shifts and shocks have influenced the way in which Muslim minorities in western countries form their identities as political actors. Catarina Kinnvall and Paul Nesbitt-Larking uncover three identity strategies adopted by Muslims in the West: retreatism, essentialism, and engagement. Six western countries - Canada, Denmark, France, the Netherlands, Sweden, and the United Kingdom - serve as places for exploration of the emergence of these Muslim political identities. These countries are discussed in light of their colonial histories, patterns of immigration, and citizenship regimes. Although retreatism, essentialism, and engagement occur in Muslim citizens of each of the six western nations discussed in this book, the countries that are best able to balance individual and community rights are most successful in promoting the politics of engagement. In contrast, regimes that focus on anti-terrorist legislation and discourses, and support majority political cultures that are exclusionary, also promote retreatism and essentialist identity strategies in both minority and majority communities. The authors discuss the importance of a climate of engagement that is based on recognition, dialogue, deep multiculturalism, a new global and "cosmopolitical" consciousness, and a sense of political identity that transcends national boundaries and regimes.

In recent decades, research in political psychology has illuminated the psychological processes underlying important political action, both by ordinary citizens and by political leaders. As the world has become increasingly engaged in thinking about politics, this volume reflects exciting new work by political psychologists to understand the psychological processes underlying Americans’ political thinking and action. In 13 chapters, world-class scholars present new in-depth work exploring public opinion, social movements, attitudes toward affirmative action, the behavior of political leaders, the impact of the 9/11 attacks, and scientists’ statements about global warming and gasoline prices. Also included are studies of attitude strength that compare the causes and consequences of various strength-related constructs. This volume will appeal to a wide range of researchers and students in political psychology and political science, and may be used as a text in upper-level courses requiring a scholarly and contemporary review of major issues in the field.

Political psychology applies what is known about human psychology to the study of politics. It examines how people reach political decisions on topics such as voting, party identification, and political attitudes as well as how leaders mediate political conflicts and make foreign policy decisions. The Oxford Handbook of Political Psychology gathers together a distinguished group of scholars from around the world to shed light on these vital questions. Focusing first on political psychology at the individual level (attitudes, values, decision-making, ideology, personality) and then moving to the collective (group identity, mass mobilization, political violence), this fully interdisciplinary volume covers models of the mass public and political elites and addresses both domestic issues and foreign policy. Now with new material providing an up-to-date account of cutting-edge research within both psychology and political science, this is an essential reference for scholars and students interested in the intersection of the two fields.

Relationships of culture and political psychology shape a wide range of important contemporary political issues. The distinguished contributors to this book make use of diverse theories of psychology, informed by a broadly comparable understanding of the nature of culture. The book is an important landmark in developing the field of political psychology, developing insights from psychological anthropologists, political scientists and crosscultural psychologists. Critical contemporary social, political and cultural issues of ethnic and crosscultural conflict around the world are crying out for theories making use of the powerful lens of culture along with other refractory frameworks.

This book provides a unique perspective on the perpetrators and victims of political violence, using original evidence from the deadly attacks perpetrated in Paris in 2015. Much of the current literature focuses on the perpetrators of such violence. This volume, however, offers a deeper analysis by focusing not only on the terrorists themselves but on understanding the reactions of the general population affected by such lethal acts. It provides a more detailed view of the opponents of terrorism, namely us, and explains how our own reactions can increase or decrease, the potential for political violence. Part I introduces the most relevant theories within social psychology and political psychology that are used to understand terrorism; Part II examines empirical evidence from a French context; and Part III discusses policy implications, with the prevention of political violence as a long-term goal. Finally, the volume offers a blueprint for a more appropriate conceptualization of terrorism as arising out of intergroup conflict suggesting ways to build a resilient society. This book will be of interest to researchers, teachers and students across social psychology, sociology, political psychology and political science.

The SAGE Encyclopedia of Political Behavior explores the intersection of psychology, political science, sociology, and human behavior. This encyclopedia integrates theories, research, and case studies from a variety of disciplines that inform this established area of study. Aimed at college and university students, this one-of-a-kind book covers voting patterns, interactions between groups, what makes different types of government systems appealing to different societies, and the impact of early childhood development on political beliefs, among others. Topics explored by political psychologists are of great interest in fields beyond either psychology or political science, with implications, for instance, within business and management. This title will be available online on SAGE Knowledge, the ultimate social sciences library.

This book presents how psychology is part of the problem of racism and inequality. With a unique look at the growing dehumanisation of Muslims across the Global North, the author provides a contemporary overview of how psychology and mental health ultimately services to produce and manage low-risk and productive citizens.

Navigating Colour-Blind Societies is a comparative ethnography of racialisation, class, and gender in the lives of young Muslims coming of age in societies where race is deemed insignificant. The book offers insights into the urban lives of young middle-class Muslims in Copenhagen and Montreal. Based on their narratives, the book examines racialisation as (1) a social process that is classed and gendered and (2) a spatial process that is social and temporal. Denmark and Quebec have seen an increasing thrust of nationalist politics in recent years, which position their Muslim citizens as the quintessential “Other.” The book contributes to our understanding of how Muslims are racialised and how they navigate this process of racialisation in social and urban life. The interaction between movement and life stories provides a unique vantage point in bringing the city to life from the perspective of these young adults. The book appeals widely to academics and students in sociology, anthropology, and human geography. It also appeals to a wider audience interested in anti-racist scholarship and Muslim experiences in the Global North.

In the first decade of the twenty-first century, Muslim women writers located in Europe and American entered the cultural mainstream. Literary and visual productions negotiated static visual emblems of Islam, most prominently "the veil." They did so not by rejecting veiling practices, but by adapting Muslim resources, concepts and visual tradition to empowerment narratives in popular media. Mainstream reception of their works has often overlooked or misread these negotiations. Muslim Textualities argues for more flexible and capacious interpretation, with particular attention to visibility as a metaphor for political agency and to knowledge of cultural contexts. This provocative volume aims to articulate Muslim female agency through clear and accessible analysis of the theory and concepts driving the interpretation of these works. Scholars interested in the working representations of Muslim women, feminist subjectivities, and the complexities of gender roles, patriarchy, and feminism will find this volume of particular interest.