ABSTRACT
My research and this book have been driven by a concern about the social justice implications of negative representations. As Dona (2007, 220) explains it, ‘Issues of representation are central to the alleviation of suffering and critical to efforts refugees make to improve their lives’. Foucault (2002a) provides the theoretical lens through which I understand the operation of representation. Negative and limiting representations of marginal subjects in dominant discourses can transpire into negative and harmful material effects for those subjects1 (Foucault 1980, 193). Representation is therefore a topic of social justice import. In particular, my interest is in the ways that marginal subject positions are reinstituted through representations made in government social policy making, and some of the techniques in discourse that bring this about.
