Critical social psychology of politics
Eleni AndreouliIn this chapter we develop a critical social psychological perspective for the study of politics with a focus on the particular topic of citizenship and immigration. The chapter is divided in two main parts. We start by making a distinction between politics as an object of study for social psychology and politics as part of academic social psychological work (i.e. the politics of social psychology as a discipline). We argue that critical social psychology is concerned with both types of politics, that is, both with exploring the political aspects of social psychological issues and with interrogating the political roots and consequences of social psychological knowledge. We also argue that the establishment of social psychology as a discipline is closely linked to an interest in deeply political topics. Social psychologists have often explicitly connected their topics of investigation with political realities, or even with specific political projects. However, the image of a politically interested social psychology has been in tension with the vision of objective science which motivated many of the discipline's founding scholars. The connection of social psychological knowledge with politics had been a contentious topic throughout the history of the discipline, and it became particularly important in discussions of the so-called 'crisis of social psychology'. Politics, therefore, constitutes a key interest for critical social psychology. The chapter suggests that a key contribution of critical social psychology to the study of politics is exploring what lay social actors construct as political and ideological in an era in which the end of politics is proclaimed, and understanding the ways in which such 'everyday politics' connect with broader socio-political contexts. These ideas are exemplified in the second part of the chapter through a discussion of critical social psychological work on citizenship, which serves as an example within the larger field of social psychology and politics. We draw together work from critical social and political psychology to examine the ways in which broader ideological themes become implicated into lay political discourses. The chapter discusses empirical studies from the emerging critical social psychology of citizenship to show that citizenship and immigration are treated as issues that can be dealt with through technocratic practices, which are constructed as consensual and above politics. However, as we show, contemporary discourses about the 'ideal citizen' are not value-free, but they are underpinned by ideologies such as neoliberalism. The chapter concludes by considering the implications of a critical social psychology of politics for social change.
