Bacchi (Excerpt)

As in the example of Indigenous health above, representing 'problem gamblers' as 'the problem', as pathological, has important political effects—keeping change within narrow limits, protecting specific interests, and stigmatizing those constructed as responsible for the problem. From this example it is clear that problem representations necessarily involve implications about who or what is responsible for the 'problem'. In many areas today, as in the examples above, it is common for individuals to be blamed for any ill effects in their lives. For example, Gillian Fulcher (1989) argues that the discourse surrounding education policy and disability construes disabled children as the 'problem', distracting attention from the disabling structures that surround them. She also notes that representing the disabled as the 'problem' allows government 'responses' to be seen as benevolent, generous and compassionate, reinforcing existing power relations. In addition, problem representations that target specific individuals or groups (e.g. 'the disabled', 'problem gamblers') as the 'problem' often affect how those who are targeted feel both about themselves and about the possibility for change. For example in the Politics of Affirmative Action (1996; see also Bacchi 2004) I show how the dominant understanding of affirmative action as 'preferential treatment' of the 'disadvantaged' tends to alienate affirmative action 'targets' from the reform—no one in Western societies likes to appear a supplicant. The way in which the 'problem' is represented in dominant affirmative action discourse, therefore, produces political subjects unlikely to support the reform, reinforcing the political status quo. This example illustrates how problem representations are forms of political intervention.

Carol Bacchi