This article examines the dynamics of power in refugee determination systems in three countries. It challenges both the view that determination systems encompass rational decision-making processes and the critical view that sees determination procedures as an instrument of the state. It argues that if we use a Foucauldian analysis of power, we are better placed to understand how refugee systems work and to understand the implications for different actors in these systems.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
Alcoff, L. (1988). Cultural feminism versus post-structuralism: The identity crisis in feminist theory. Signs, 13(31), 405-436.
2.
Alvesson, M. (1996). Communication, power and organization. Berlin, Germany: De Gruyter.
3.
Alvesson, M., & Willmott., H. (1992a). On the idea of emancipation in management and organization studies. Academy of Management Review, 17(3), 432-464.
4.
Alvesson, M., & Willmott, H. (Eds.). (1992b). Critical management studies. London: Sage.
5.
Amnesty International (1991). Deficient policy and practice of asylum seekers. London: Author.
6.
Ashley, D. (1990). Habermas and the completion of the `project of modernity.' In B. S. Turner (Ed.), Theories of modernity and post modernity (pp. 88-107). London: Sage.
7.
Astley, W. G., & Sachdeva, P. S. (1984). Structural sources of intraorganizational power: A theoretical synthesis. Academy of Management Review, 9(1), 104-113.
8.
Auditor General. (1990). Report to the House of Commons. Ottawa, Canada: Minister of Supply and Services.
9.
British Refugee Council. (n.d.). The refugee advisor's handbook. London: The Refugee Council.
10.
Callon, M. (1986). Some elements of a sociology of translation: Domestication of the scallops and the fishermen of St. Brieuc Bay. In J. Law (Ed.), Power, action and belief (pp.196-233). London: Routledge.
11.
Clegg, S. R. (1989). Frameworks of power. London: Sage.
12.
Cohen, R. (1994). Frontiers of identity: The British and the others. London: Longman.
13.
Cooper, R. & Burrell, G. (1988). Modernism, postmodernism and organizational analysis: An introduction. Organization Studies, 9(1), 91-112.
14.
Czarniawska-Joerges, B. (1996). Autobiographical acts and organizational identities. In S. Linstead, R. Grafton Small, & P. Jeffcutt (Eds.), Understanding management (pp. 142-151). London: Sage.
15.
Danish Red Cross. (n.d.). Asylum work of the Danish Red Cross. Copenhagen, Denmark: Author.
16.
Danish Red Cross. (n.d.). Welcome to the Danish Red Cross. Copenhagen, Denmark: Author.
17.
Danish Refugee Council. (1989). An asylum seeker's way through the system: A guide to the Danish Refugee Council. Copenhagen, Denmark: Author.
18.
Danish Refugee Council. (1990). Legal and social conditions for asylum seekers and refugees in selected European countries. Copenhagen, Denmark: Author.
19.
Deetz, S. (1992a). Democracy in an age of corporate colonization: Developments in communication and the politics of everyday life. Albany, NY: State University of New York.
20.
Deetz, S. (1992b). Disciplinary power in the modern corporation. In M. Alvesson & H. Willmott (Eds.), Critical management studies (pp. 21-45). London: Sage.
21.
Dreyfus, H. L., & Rabinow, R. (1982). Michel Foucault: Beyond structuralism and hermeneutics. Brighton, UK: Harvester.
22.
Flax, J. (1987). Postmodernism and gender relations in feminist theory. Signs, 12(4), 621-643.
23.
Foucault, M. (1972). The archeology of knowledge. London: Routledge.
24.
Foucault, M. (1979). Discipline and punish: The birth of the prison. New York: Vintage.
25.
Foucault, M. (1980). Power/knowledge: Selected interviews and other writings 1972-1977. Brighton, UK: Harvester Press.
26.
Foucault, M. (1982). The subject and power. In H. L. Dreyfus & P. Rabinow (Eds.), Michel Foucault: Beyond structuralism and hermeneutics (pp. 208-226). Brighton, UK: Harvester Press.
27.
Foucault, M. (1984). The history of sexuality: An introduction. Harmondsworth, UK: Penguin.
28.
Freire, P. (1992). Pedagogy of the oppressed. New York: Continuum.
29.
Goffman, E. (1959). The presentation of self in everyday life. Garden City, NJ: Anchor.
30.
Gray, B. (1989). Collaborating: Finding common ground for multiparty problems. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
31.
Hardy, C. (1994). Underorganized interorganizational domains: The case of refugee systems. Journal of Applied Behavioral Science, 30(3), 278-296.
32.
Hardy, C., & Leiba O'Sullivan, S. (1998). The power behind empowerment: Implications for research and practice. Human Relations, 51(4), 451-483.
33.
Hardy, C., & Phillips, N. (1998). Strategies of engagement: Lessons from the critical examination of collaboration and conflict in an interorganizational domain. Organization Science, 9(2), 217-230.
34.
Hardy, C., & Phillips, N. (1999). No joking matter: Discursive struggle in the Canadian refugee system. Organization Studies, 20(1), 1-24.
35.
Hassard, J. (1993). Postmodernism and organizational analysis. In J. Hassard & M. Parker (Eds.), Postmodernism and organizations (pp.1-23). London: Sage.
36.
Hickson, D. J., Hinings, C. R., Lee, C. A., Schneck, R. E., & Pennings, J. H. (1971). A strategic contingencies theory of intraorganizational power. Administrative Science Quarterly, 16(2), 216-229.
37.
Hoy, D. C. (1986). Power, repression, progress: Foucault, Lukes, and the Frankfurt School. In D. C. Hoy (Ed.), Foucault: A critical reader (pp. 123-147). Oxford, UK: Basil Blackwell.
38.
Immigration & Refugee Board. (1988). Refugee determination: What it is and how it works. Ottawa, Canada: Author.
39.
Joly, D. (1990). Refugees in Europe. Nottingham, UK: Russell Press.
40.
Joly, D., & Cohen, P. (1989). Reluctant hosts: Europe and its refugees. Aldershot, UK: Avebury.
41.
Kerfoot, D., & Knights, D. (1993). Management, masculinity and manipulation: From paternalism to corporate strategy in financial services in Britain. Journal of Management Studies, 30(4), 659-677.
42.
Knights, D. (1992). Changing spaces: The disruptive impact of a new epistemological location for the study of management. Academy of Management Review, 17(3), 514-536.
43.
Knights, D., & Morgan, G. (1991). Strategic discourse and subjectivity: Towards a critical analysis of corporate strategy in organisations. Organisation Studies, 12(3), 251-273.
44.
Knights, D., & Willmott, H. (1985). Power and identity in theory and practice. Sociological Review, 33(1), 22-46.
45.
Knights, D., & Willmott, H. (1989). Power and subjectivity at work: From degradation to subjugation in social relations. Sociology, 23(4), 535-558.
46.
Kormendi, E. (1987). Refugees in Denmark. Copenhagen, Denmark: The Danish National Institute of Social Research.
47.
Laclau, E., & Mouffe, C. (1987). Postmodernism without apologies. New Left Review, 166, 79-106.
48.
Laumann, E. O., & Knoke, D. (1987). The organizational state. Madison, WI: University of Wisconsin Press.
49.
Lyotard, J. F. (1984). The postmodern condition: A report on knowledge. Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press.
50.
Majika, M. (1991). Into the 1990s: The needs of refugee-based organizations and refugees in Britain. Oxford, UK: Refugee Studies Program.
51.
Matas, D. (1989). Closing the doors. Toronto, Canada: Summerhill.
52.
Mumby, D. K. (1992). Two discourses on communication, power, and the subject: Jürgen Habermas and Michel Foucault. In G. Levine (Ed.), Construction of the self (pp. 81-104). New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press.
53.
Nathan, M. L., & Mitroff, I. I. (1991). The use of negotiated order theory as a tool for the analysis and development of an interorganizational field. Journal of Applied Behavioral Science, 27, 163-180.
54.
Parry, G., & Morriss, P. (1975). When is a decision not a decision? In L. Crewe (Ed.), British political sociology yearbook (Vol. 1). London: Croon Helm.
55.
Pettigrew, A. M. (1973). The politics of organizational decision-making. London: Tavistock.
56.
Pfeffer, J. (1981). Power in organizations. Marshfield, MA: Pitman.
57.
Pfeffer, J. (1992). Managing with power. Boston: Harvard Business School Press.
58.
Pfeffer, J., & Salancik, G. (1974). Organizational decision making as a political process. Administrative Science Quarterly, 19, 135-151.
59.
Phillips, N., & Hardy, C. (1997). Managing multiple identities: Discourse, legitimacy and resources in the UK refugee system. Organization, 4(2), 159-185.
60.
Phillips, N., & Hardy, C. (2002). Discourse analysis: Investigating processes of social construction. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
61.
Rudge, P. (1989). The failure of the spirit, report of the proceedings of the international symposium on the refugee crisis: British and Canadian responses. Oxford, UK: Refugee Studies Programme.
62.
Said, E. W. (1986). Foucault and the imagination of power. In D. C. Hoy (Ed.), Foucault: A critical reader (pp. 149-155). Oxford, UK: Basil Blackwell.
63.
Salancik, G., & Pfeffer, J. (1974). The bases and use of power in organizational decision-making. Administrative Science Quarterly, 19, 453-473.
64.
Salinas, M., Pritchard, D., & Kibedi, A. (1987). Refugee-based organizations: Their function and importance for the refugee in Britain. Oxford, UK: Refugee Studies Programme.
65.
Sawicki, J. (1991). Disciplining Foucault. London: Routledge.
66.
Smart, B. (1985). Michel Foucault. London: Tavistock.
67.
Steen, A. (1993). Varieties of the Tamil refugee experience in Denmark and England. Copenhagen, Denmark: University of Copenhagen, Danish Centre for Human Rights.
68.
Townley, B. (1993). Foucault, power/knowledge, and its relevance for human resource management. American Management Review, 18(3), 518-545.
69.
Turner, B. S. (Ed.). (1990). Theories of modernity & post modernity. London: Sage.
70.
Walzer, M. (1986). The politics of Michel Foucault. In D. C. Hoy (Ed.), Foucault: A critical reader (pp. 51-68). Oxford, UK: Basil Blackwell.
71.
Westley, F., & Vredenburg, H. (1991). Strategic bridging: The collaboration between environmentalists and business in the marketing of green products. Journal of Applied Behavioral Science, 27(1), 65-90.
72.
White, S. K. (1986). Foucault's challenge to critical theory. American Political Science Review, 80(2), 419-432.
73.
Young, M. (1989). Canada's refugee determination system (revised 1990). Ottawa, Canada: Library of Parliament, Law & Government Division.
