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Localism in Irish Ethnography

expression of various cognitive and psychological processes. For example, one such approach singles out the authoritarian personality as the main culprit. By this view, the characteristics of the authoritarian personality are the result of a parent-child relationship that is hierarchical and exploitative, and the authoritarian person exhibits such patterns as an aversion to weakness and dependency and a strong hostility toward outgroups. Wetherell and Potter argue instead that racism, far from being limited to people with authoritarian personalities, is likely to appear even in the context of social reformist, humanitarian, and liberal discourse. The discussions of theory provide an illuminating overview and in the process bring the authors' own approach into sharp focus. One standard for judging a work is whether one learns from it, and by this criterion the theoretical discussions of this book are excellent. Yet the book is empirically thin. It draws upon a body of written material and on interviews with 8 i Pakeha New Zealanders, but a comparatively small amount of this material finds its way into the work. In truth, the reader learns a good deal more about theories of racism than about racism in New Zealand. For example, the authors offer a very provocative but sketchy review of the history of racial thought in New Zealand, and one wishes they had done more. Similarly, the snippets of interview material that are included are very rich and the analyses tantalizing, but together these elements of the book give only a partial glimpse of the rhetorical strategies used in legitimating domination. As provocative as Wetherell and Potter's thesis may be, it may also be mistaken, and the skeptic is not likely to be convinced by this study. They are posing an empirical question about the effects of one set of events (discourse) on another (structural relations), and to make the argument convincing they need both to delve more deeply into discourse and to explore its effects. It is easy to imagine alternatives to the authors' thesis: how would they counter the argument, say, that the policy of conservation of Maori culture does not help to promote Pakeha domination at all but has the effect rather of increasing Pakeha awareness of Maori grievances and fostering beneficial changes in power relations? A feature of the analysis that I find surprising-since Wetherell and Potter are social psychologists-is that they say little about the subjective processes that underlie racist discourse (pp. 26-33). For example, they suggest that most Pakeha New Zealanders express a belief in equality and fair play and avoid the appearance of racial prejudice; yet these same people engage in discursive strategies that serve to legitimate Pakeha domination. We are led to wonder how the desire for domination comes to carry such weight in people's actions. Is the individual aware that it does so, or does the goal of maintaining dominance reside at a level beyond conscious awareness? The analysis of this book implies a variety of processes or mechanisms at the individual level, even about what we might call the character structure of human beings, and we are left wishing that these problems had been explored in greater detail. It is a sobering idea that even the most enlightened views may be perverted for racist ends. For example, if the human scientist undertakes a study with the goal of revealing injustice and promoting reform, the actual effect may be the reverse. Such a study may be well received by the public, which may then convince itself that it truly is a caring nation, and this in turn may lead to complacency. If racism is to be attacked by changing the structure of society, how can this be accomplished when efforts toward that end are so easily perverted in popular discourse? A great virtue of this book is that it suggests not only how difficult he task is but how discourse works against reformist efforts in this regard. This is a valuable book that deserves a wide readership. Its central thesis refers not only to racism but to all forms of domination, from the face-to-face group to international relations.