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The Spectacular Politics of the UK "Small Boats Crisis"

Lookup NU author(s): Dr Jan DobbernackORCiD

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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0).

Abstract

The article examines the performance of crisis in the UK Government’s push towards the Illegal Migration Act 2023. It considers political operations underpinning this campaign as “crisis work”, drawing attention to the staging of dangerous, harmful and tragic subjects in a panoramic space of spectacular visibility. I develop this perspective based on a review of programmatic speeches, parliamentary debate, and the coverage of UK newspapers with emphasis on a single moment: March 2023. The article grapples with the spectacular politics of crisis, whose effects are underexplored in literatures that consider migration crisis primarily for corresponding emergency measures, processes of securitization or conjunctural openings. The spectacle of crisis requires attention for the layers of social visibility it produces and for its role in the symbolic consolidation of immigration policy.

Publication metadata

Author(s): Dobbernack J

Publication type: Article

Publication status: Published

Journal: International Political Sociology

Year: 2025

Volume: 19

Issue: 1

Online publication date: 13/03/2025

Acceptance date: 16/02/2025

Date deposited: 27/01/2025

ISSN (print): 1749-5679

ISSN (electronic): 1749-5687

Publisher: Oxford University Press

URL: https://doi.org/10.1093/ips/olaf003

DOI: 10.1093/ips/olaf003

ePrints DOI: 10.57711/szfz-x260

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