The Formation of Public Professional Radical Consciousness: The Example of Anti-Racism

Abstract

This paper presents a theory and case study of the formation of public professional radicalism. Theories of `new class' and `middle class' radicalism are criticise for neglecting the experiential context in which political consciousness is formed. A similar critique is made of Offe's analysis of the political contradictions of the welfare state. It is suggested that public professionals resolve their contradictory experiences of welfare capitalism into forms of rhetoric and action that combine `non-market' and `pro-market' values. This process is identified as the formation of ideology. Interviews with anti-racist educationalists in London and Tyneside are introduced to exemplify this argument. Five ideologies are discussed. Three (the notions of anti-racism as `good education', as an exercise in `consciousness raising', and as part of `the Black struggle') were articulated in both study sites. Two others (the notions of `local sensitivity', and `the gentle approach') were distinct to Tyneside. The paper concludes by noting the salience of a geographically sensitive approach to the analysis of public professional radical consciousness