Turner, J. (2016) Governing the Domestic Space of the Traveller in the UK: ‘Family’, ‘Home’ and the Struggle over Dale Farm. Citizenship Studies, 20 (2). pp. 208-227. ISSN 1362-1025
Abstract
This article contends that domesticity and processes of domestication maintain a central role in the (re)production of British citizenship. Domesticity provides a template for living that shapes the raced, classed, gendered and sexed boundaries of Britishness. Drawing upon William Walters’ concept of ‘domopolitics’, the article specifically explores how norms of familial domesticity are used in the marginalisation and regulation of Traveller groups in the UK. Focussing on the eviction of Irish Travellers from the Dale Farm site in Essex, 2011, the article argues that the eviction relied upon the historical mobilisation of Travellers as ‘failing’ norms of domesticity. However, whilst the destruction of ‘home’ (domicide) at Dale Farm represented a form of domestication that is enacted in the name of the ‘true’ domos or the home of the citizen, this did not go unchallenged. The struggle and resistance to the state-led eviction at Dale Farm unsettled the boundaries of contemporary domopolitics by providing alternative claims to belonging and ‘home’. By examining the politics of domesticity in the production of marginality, we see how family and home not only act as means of stratifying and governing subjects but also emerge as sites of contestation.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © 2016 Taylor & Francis. This is an author produced version of a paper subsequently published in Citizenship Studies. Uploaded in accordance with the publisher's self-archiving policy. |
Keywords: | British citizenship; domopolitics; Dale Farm; travellers; eviction; resistance; domesticity and home |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Sheffield |
Academic Units: | The University of Sheffield > Faculty of Social Sciences (Sheffield) > Department of Politics and International Relations (Sheffield) |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Sheffield |
Date Deposited: | 29 Sep 2016 13:21 |
Last Modified: | 22 Jul 2017 13:57 |
Published Version: | https://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13621025.2015.1132568 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | Taylor & Francis |
Refereed: | Yes |
Identification Number: | 10.1080/13621025.2015.1132568 |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:93227 |