Employing critical race theory as a theoretical and analytical framework, this thesis explores the nature, structure and purpose of Islamophobic discourse, and offers two central contributions to the scholarly debate on Islamophobia. First, it contributes to the literature on the nature of Islamophobia by analysing the form and structure of discourse that seeks to represent Muslims and Islam in a number of social and political sites. Second, the thesis addresses a significant gap identified in the scholarly literature, which has largely overlooked the purpose that Islamophobic discourse serves for those employing it. In order to address the nature and structure of Islamophobic discourse, the thesis analyses representations of Muslims and Islam in dominant national community cohesion and counterterrorism discourses; rearticulation of these discourses at the local level in the West Midlands town of Dudley; the use of Islamophobic discourse by the English Defence League; and the ways in which Islamophobic narratives were used to mark national boundaries in Switzerland, Denmark, the Netherlands and France. I explain the convergence of narratives across these levels by extending Ghassan Hage's theoretical formulation of racism as nationalist practices to Islamophobic discourse and argue that, as a cultural racism, Islamophobia can be conceptualised as upholding a system of Eurocentric supremacy, where Western subjects receive a better social, economic and political 'racial contract' and seek to defend these privileges against real and imagined Muslim demands. Whether employed for local, national or civilisational purposes, Islamophobia relies on the notion that space has been culturally compromised by Muslims and must be restored to authenticity by legitimate non-Muslim cultural managers. Islamophobia operates through a three-stage ideological process, and restores fantasised power to those who perceive Muslim cultural difference to be unacceptably changing the spaces in which they reside by representing Muslims as making incongruous demands of a territory, singling out a particular timeless value that is under threat, and reifying this value to an absolute. Through this process Muslims are put back in their place, while those employing this discourse experience a restoration of their cultural power to decide the values of a space.

This thesis is the product of a discourse analytic investigation of the first decade of the British lesbian magazine, DIVA, which launched in 1994. Work on mainstream women's and men's magazines has established them as sites at which (largely heterosexual) femininities and masculinities are constructed and construed, but relatively little scholarship has addressed lesbian magazines in this fashion. DIVA is Britain's only nationally sold, mainstream lesbian magazine; with this in mind, the thesis provides an analytic account of the magazine's launch, production and brand, and considers the discursive construction of lesbian community and the boundary work that that entails. The initial analytic chapters detail editorial philosophies, routines, and financial circumstances; design, front covers, and editorial content. Though the magazine has only limited resources available, those restrictions are simultaneously liberating, allowing DIVA's editors to pursue their political commitments at the same time as operating in the commercial marketplace. In considering the discursive construction of 'us', the thesis highlights a focus on community, support, and heritage. It further considers the discursive management of the boundaries of that imagined community, focusing on the 'threat' posed by bisexual women and the arguments this causes among readers. Finally, DIVA's handling of (heterosexual) others is considered, concluding that they are constructed as irrational, yet powerful, aggressors. Overall, DIVA's was a brand invested in the notion of community and in its role not only in imagining that community but also bringing members together. Though readers were at times divided over who belonged, or should belong, they were united in their belief that there was something to belong to. In the face of a hostile greater 'other', which was constructed as a constant source of threat, this belonging was incredibly important.

Prior to Germany’s emergence as an imperial power in 1884, scholarly knowledge of the Orient was only deemed useful to a handful of academics, largely in part because oriental scholarship’s primary emphasis was the study of classical languages and ancient manuscripts. German colonialism, on the other hand, required the creation of a new body of oriental knowledge, one that was firmly rooted in the contemporary world instead of antiquity. In 1907, Carl Heinrich Becker published Christianity and Islam, one of the first pieces of scholarship to examine the modern Orient with a modern methodology. In particular, it was Becker’s adoption of the sociology of religion, a concept pioneered by Max Weber and Émile Durkheim, which allowed him to interpret the modern Orient in a way not previously possible under the philological tradition that defined oriental studies for previous generations of scholars.

Community art is a multidisciplinary practice that was engendered by two main perspectives on art; a functionalist approach and an ‘art as essential to humanity’ approach. These differing ideological positions led to the construction of polarizing dichotomies that divided the field of practice and stagnated the community art discourse. This thesis re-visions community art as transformative community art (T.C.A.) to integrate a diverse range of practice into a distinct, recognizable field, transcend the binaries inherited from its founding fields, and identify the field as an innovative artistic movement and radical practice for social change. In this thesis T.C.A. is employed as a framework for theorizing practice. Threats to T.C.A. from funding structures, cooptation, and institutionalisation are explored and strategies of resistance identified. The concept of T.C.A. is mobilized to identify areas for future work; raising questions and ideas that can contribute to advancing a more complex, nuanced, and productive discourse.

Community art is a multidisciplinary practice that was engendered by two main perspectives on art; a functionalist approach and an ‘art as essential to humanity’ approach. These differing ideological positions led to the construction of polarizing dichotomies that divided the field of practice and stagnated the community art discourse. This thesis re-visions community art as transformative community art (T.C.A.) to integrate a diverse range of practice into a distinct, recognizable field, transcend the binaries inherited from its founding fields, and identify the field as an innovative artistic movement and radical practice for social change. In this thesis T.C.A. is employed as a framework for theorizing practice. Threats to T.C.A. from funding structures, cooptation, and institutionalisation are explored and strategies of resistance identified. The concept of T.C.A. is mobilized to identify areas for future work; raising questions and ideas that can contribute to advancing a more complex, nuanced, and productive discourse.