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The culture of disbelief: an ethnographic approach to understanding an under-theorised concept in the UK asylum system Jessica Anderson, Jeannine Hollaus, Annelisa Lindsay, Colin Williamson July 2014 In the context of increasingly restrictive immigration and asylum policies in the United Kingdom, human rights advocates suggest that a 'culture of disbelief' permeates the asylum system, forestalling the provision of protection to those who need it. This study aims to contribute to emerging academic literature on the culture of disbelief by asking how and to what extent it manifests through the performance of law. Adopting an ethnographic approach, we observed nine complete and five partial asylum appeal hearings at Taylor House Asylum and Immigration Tribunal in London, spoke with judges and solicitors, and conducted two key informant interviews. Framing our findings using Bourdieu's concepts of 'habitus', 'field' and 'capital', we do not argue that any individual element in the courtroom accounts for the culture of disbelief. Instead, this culture, or habitus, emerges when various structures and agents, with varying capital, combine. To download the paper, please visit: http://www.rsc.ox.ac.uk/publications/the-culture-of-disbelief-an-ethnographic-approach-to-understanding-an-under-theorised-concept-in-the-uk-asylum-system ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Note: The material contained in this communication comes to you from the Forced Migration Discussion List which is moderated by Forced Migration Online, Refugee Studies Centre (RSC), Oxford Department of International Development, University of Oxford. It does not necessarily reflect the views of the RSC or the University. If you re-print, copy, archive or re-post this message please retain this disclaimer. Quotations or extracts should include attribution to the original sources. E-mail: [log in to unmask] Posting guidelines: http://www.forcedmigration.org/research-resources/discussion/forced-migration-discussion-list-posting-guidelines Subscribe/unsubscribe: http://tinyurl.com/fmlist-join-leave List Archives: http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/lists/forced-migration.html RSS: https://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/cgi-bin/webadmin?RSS&L=forced-migration Twitter: http://twitter.com/#!/refugeestudies Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/refugeestudiescentre