Politics beyond territory - Transnational activism in a changing Europe
Type
conference paper
Date Issued
2018-11
Author(s)
Abstract (De)
This paper explores transnational activism as a locus for progressive political change in Europe. Such an investigation might be particularly urgent in times when right-wing populist win elections all over the European continent by re-inscribing belonging in borders, walls and national identity. Often, they seek to legitimise their political approaches by referring to notions of ‘rootedness’ and ‘national territory’, which rely on an understanding of the national as the taken-for-granted, natural order of things (Gupta and Ferguson, 1997). In contrast, the activism investigated in this study operates from a kind of ‘space beyond territory’. The paper opens up questions around such alternative political orientations by presenting preliminary findings from ethnographic material collected with a group of transnational activists in Europe in an ongoing, politically engaged collaborative research project. Respective activists work towards “democracy, equality and culture beyond the nation state” and contribute to a re-imagination of ‘Europe’ from bottom up. In order to do so, their actions create spaces of convergence, bringing together different people, projects and ideas from across and beyond the continent into temporary transnational spaces. Rather than being rooted in a particular bounded understanding of national or European territory, it is from the sense of ‘in-betweenness’ of these affective spaces that alternative visions for and of Europe can come into being.
Language
English
Event Title
ESA European Sociological Association’s Political Sociology Research Network Conference "Fragile Europe"
Event Location
Prague
Division(s)
Eprints ID
262921