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Lookup NU author(s): Dr Jan Dobbernack
This is the authors' accepted manuscript of an article that has been published in its final definitive form by Routledge, 2018.
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The article examines the idea of muscular liberalism, first invoked by David Cameron as a paradigm of assertive policymaking in opposition to ‘state multiculturalism’. The rhetoric of muscular liberalism is present across western Europe, but its political effects have not been convincingly explored. In scholarship on ethnic minority integration, a ‘stimulus–response model’ credits Muslim intransigence as the trigger for the muscular stance. Other commentators put muscular liberalism into a genealogical perspective but do little to consider the circumstances of its political deployment. Working towards an alternative account, the article examines two instances of muscular liberalism in Britain: the campaign against ‘Sharia Courts’ and the ‘Trojan Horse’ affair. Different from the concern with historical continuity or stable potentials of liberal normativity, it draws attention to political operations and strategic calculations that characterize the deployment of muscular liberalism in British politics.
Author(s): Dobbernack J
Publication type: Article
Publication status: Published
Journal: Identities
Year: 2018
Volume: 25
Issue: 4
Pages: 377-396
Online publication date: 17/10/2016
Acceptance date: 15/09/2016
Date deposited: 23/01/2018
ISSN (print): 1070-289X
ISSN (electronic): 1547-3384
Publisher: Routledge
URL: https://doi.org/10.1080/1070289X.2016.1244063
DOI: 10.1080/1070289X.2016.1244063
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