• CFP Eugeo 2019 – Borders of Populism
2019-01-23
Session Title: Borders of populism in the European Union
Session Convenors: Anna Casaglia, Raffaella Coletti, University of Trento; Sapienza University of Rome, Dept. Memotef
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Research on populism is animating academic debates in light of the growing relevance of this trend, which is indeed a rising global phenomenon. Populist movements differ a lot across space and time; however, in its very basic definition, populism is the movement of the ‘pure people’ and their will against the ‘elites’; or, more precisely, a struggle between a reified ‘will of the people’ and a conspiring elite.
Populism is diffusing widely in the European Union and a common feature of these movements is their anti-EU positions, or the inclusion of European institutions and European representatives in the list of “corrupted” elites to be confronted by the new generation of “people” in power. As such, the diffusion of populism challenges the present and future of EU structure and integration.
The contribution of geography to the study of populism has been limited so far, even if borders, globalisation, inequalities, sovereignty, which are crucial variables in the current populist wave, are also traditional topics for geographers. In this frame, and in the case of the European Union specifically, the role of borders looks particularly important.
Indeed, (territorial and relational) borders are crucial sites in understanding processes of EU integration, and political geographers have widely explored the ‘nature of the beast’, interrogating the role of bordering practices and imaginaries in the making of the European Union. Consequently, EU borders and bordering processes are pivotal to exploring and understanding the rationale and the implications of the current shifting political landscape of the EU, and potential mechanisms of EU (dis)integration.
Moreover, borders are central in populist discourse and ideology, not only as ‘containers’ of national identity, but as crucial markers of sovereignty against supranational regulations. Populist parties all over Europe have been exploiting borders and the so-called ‘refugee crisis’ to securitise migration and human mobility and to promote the defence of national identity in the face of cultural invasion. In most countries where populism has been politically successful, like Hungary, Belgium, and Italy, the ‘pure people’s’ claims have soon met racist, homophobic and islamophobic politics invoking the closure of borders, the defence of traditional Christian values, and the strengthening of national bonds. The imaginary power of the nation-state seems to have risen again with a chauvinist revival and a strong feeling that Our security is threatened by Others.
This session aims to collect theoretical or case-study based contributions that explore the link between populism and borders in the European Union in two main directions: on the one hand, to understand if and how European bordering processes can be used as key variables in exploring the emergence and the features of populism; on the other hand, to analyse how European populism affects border practices, imaginaries and regimes at European internal and external borders.
Please send your abstracts (maximum 250 words) to Raffaella Coletti (raffaella.coletti@uniroma1.it) and Anna Casaglia (anna.casaglia@unitn.it) by January 28th 2019.
