Identifications. A Psychoanalytic/Political Study of Performances Countering intra-European Cultural Racism

The enlargement of the European Union to include Central and Eastern Europe (2004, 2007) brought with it the rise of right-wing politics in Western Europe.

Factors that contributed to the ensuing institutionalisation of right-wing parties include: the European debt crisis (2009-2018), the imposing of austerity measures, and the unprecedented influx of migrants from the Middle East and Africa during a period that has been termed the European migrant crisis (2015-2019).

As living standards fell, far-right politicians blamed the decline on both internal and external immigrants and refugees by singling out incomers as a threat to economic and cultural stability.

The right-wing populists began galvanising processes of identification among citizens through the use of discourses of intolerance. A newly-fortified cultural racism provided followers with a mechanism of legitimacy for their right-wing beliefs. This research project will study the intricate interplay of performance and race.

It will investigate the ways in which both left-leaning civic performances (civil protests, speeches, policies) and artistic performances (theatre, dance, music) are capable of mobilising processes of identification that draw upon anti-racist discourses that permeate and sustain democratic institutions.

Turning to discourse theory, and using a self-critical, Western European lens, the project will explore processes of identification that contest cultural racism.