Crisis and Coloniality at Europe's Margins

Crisis and Coloniality at Europe’s Margins: Creating Exotic Iceland provides a fresh look at the current politics of identity in Europe, using a crisis at the margins of Europe to shed light on the continued embeddedness of coloniality in everyday aspirations and identities. Examining Iceland’s response to its collapse into bankruptcy in 2008, the author explores the way in which the country sought to brand itself as an exotic tourist destination. With attention to the nation’s aspirations, rooted in the late 19th century, of belonging as part of Europe, rather than being classified with colonized countries, the book examines the engagement with ideas of otherness across and within Europe, as European discourses continue to be based on racialized ideas of ‘civilized’ people. With its focus on coloniality at a time of crisis, this volume contributes to our understanding of how racism endures in the present and the significance of nationalistic sentiments in a world of precariousness. Anchored in part in personal narrative, this critical analysis of coloniality, racism, whiteness and national identities will appeal to scholars across the social sciences with interests in national identity-making, European politics and race in a world characterised by crisis

Crisis and Coloniality at Europe's Margins

Crisis and Coloniality at Europe’s Margins: Creating Exotic Iceland provides a fresh look at the current politics of identity in Europe, using a crisis at the margins of Europe to shed light on the continued embeddedness of coloniality in everyday aspirations and identities. Examining Iceland’s response to its collapse into bankruptcy in 2008, the author explores the way in which the country sought to brand itself as an exotic tourist destination. With attention to the nation’s aspirations, rooted in the late 19th century, of belonging as part of Europe, rather than being classified with colonized countries, the book examines the engagement with ideas of otherness across and within Europe, as European discourses continue to be based on racialized ideas of ‘civilized’ people. With its focus on coloniality at a time of crisis, this volume contributes to our understanding of how racism endures in the present and the significance of nationalistic sentiments in a world of precariousness. Anchored in part in personal narrative, this critical analysis of coloniality, racism, whiteness and national identities will appeal to scholars across the social sciences with interests in national identity-making, European politics and race in a world characterised by crisis

„Ég elti auðinn til Evrópu“: Sögur af fólki á flótta, innflytjendum og ,,ólöglegum“ einstaklingum

Á síðastliðnum árum hefur fólk á flótta orðið sýnilegra á margvíslegan hátt. Greinin bendir á brotalamir sem oft má sjá í umræðunni um fólk á flótta og innflytjendur þar sem m.a. er gengið út frá því að Evrópa hafi lengi verið aðskilin frá umheiminum og eingöngu núna sé fólk að færa sig milli heimshluta. Undirstrikað er hvernig flokkun fólks í náttúrugerða hópa, eins og flóttamaður og hælisleitandi, getur falið í sér afmennskun og einföldun á aðstæðum þeirra. Greinin nálgast þetta viðfangsefni út frá sögum þriggja einstaklinga sem hafa flúið frá erfiðum aðstæðum í heimalandi sínu Níger og búa í Brussel í Belgíu, en speglar einnig efnið út frá íslenskri umræðu.People migrating to Europe in search for a new life have become increasingly visible in various ways for the last few years. The article stresses some of the weaknesses in discussions on migration to Europe, where it is often assumed that migration from the outside world has only recently been affecting Europe. The article emphasizes how classifications of people into categories such as „refugee“ and „immigrant“ and the naturalization of these categories, can lead to dehumanization and stark simplifications. The article approaches this through stories of three men in Brussels, Belgium who have fled difficult circumstances in their home country Niger. It also explores these issues from some Icelandic discussions.Peer Reviewe

Where My Cord is Buried: WoDaaBe Use and Conceptualization of Land

A general conception among many government officials and those working in relation to development seems to be that WoDaaBe simply do not have attachment to land, and traditionally have had no conception of land as a home. These issues are increasingly important in present day Niger, where claims of land have become a very central issue. The goal of this paper is to discuss resource use by a specific lineage group of WoDaaBe and their conceptualization of land. I will explain the dynamics of the seasonal movements of WoDaaBe, which I believe are partly the reason that WoDaaBe are often seen as not having an attachment to land. I will also discuss concepts tied to the WoDaaBe conceptualization of land. I place my discussion in a broad political and ecological context, explaining the WoDaaBe situation within the nation state. Keywords: Niger, WoDaaBe, land tenure, land policy, pastoralism, Sahel, nation state

Within a ‘white’ affective space: racialization in Iceland and development discourses

Racialization does not always take place through discourses of blackness as emphasized in American research, or exclusively in relation to immigration, as emphasized in the European context. As an affective process, racialization is entangled with particular views of nation-states and a sense of belonging in a wider community of nations where humanitarianism can play a large role. By looking at international development in Iceland, the paper emphasizes that racialization takes place in different spheres of society where Icelandic racial subjectivities are shaped by global ideas of humanitarianism and international development that intersect with older Icelandic anxieties of belonging with sovereign northern European nations. The article emphasizes whiteness as being embedded in local Icelandic conversions of nationhood and belonging, entangled in global international development discourses that involve mobilizations of the idea of ‘humanity’.University of Iceland Research Fund and The Icelandic Research Fund (RANNIS), project number 134226-052Post prin

The Exotic North: Gender, Nation Branding and Post-colonialism in Iceland

Post-print (lokagerð höfundar)This discussion stresses that looking at countries on the margins of European colonial rule can be useful when considering the wider dynamics of the present, reflecting the persistence of colonial discourses and how racism “endures”. Iceland’s colonial experience was characterized by duality, in which the country was an object of colonialism, while actively participating in the racist discourses predominant in Europe at that time. This paper demonstrates how Iceland’s long association with the exotic and its gendered manifestations is currently being perpetuated by the tourist and state industries, under the influence of neo-liberal ideas about nation branding. When contextualized within the larger geopolitical environment, Iceland as an “exotic” destination unravels the racist and colonized narratives still at play within a wider geopolitical context.This research was supported by grants for two independent research projects “Arctic Encounters” (supported by HERA 2013–2016) and the project “Icelandic Identity in Crisis” funded by Rannis (Icelandic Center for Research) for 2013–2015 [grant number 130426-053].Peer Reviewe

‘Europe is finished’: migrants lives in Europe’s capital at times of crisis

Post-print (lokagerð höfundar)Migration has become a key issue in the contemporary European context, with depictions of Europe as under ‘attack’ due to the mass movement of uprooted populations, especially from Africa and the Middle East. The current sentiment of Europe in crisis calls for a deeper understanding of how the idea of Europe is configured. This article focuses on the idea of “Europe” as seen from the point of view of Nigerien men who are living in Brussels without residency permits. Their voices reveal some of the gaps in contemporary discourses concerning crises and Europe’s predicament, especially in terms of terror and refugees. Their narratives point to how current debates on migration and crisis tends to rely on an image of a disconnected world, which obfuscate Europe’s historical interconnections with those now seeking entrance into Europe. Muslim migrants in particular are regularly portrayed as being incompatible with modernity, reflecting the persistent refusal to acknowledge their coevalness in Fabian’s [2014. Time and the other: How anthropology makes its object. New York: Columbia University Press] sense, that is to say their coexistence in the same time and space. One aspect of shared coexistence is “digitalized connectivity” where media representations of Europe in crisis are an integral part of the lives of these migrant men as others living in Europe.This work was supported by the University of Iceland Research Fund under Grant for the project Cosmopolitan Migrant Subjects: Migration from Niger to Europe; and Icelandic Center for Research (Rannís) [Grant number 163350-051].Peer Reviewe

Iceland, rejected by McDonald's: desire and anxieties in a global crisis

Iceland’s increased involvement in global economic markets in the early 2000s came to a sudden halt in autumn 2008 when Iceland became at the time the worst case of the global financial crisis. The discussion focuses on anxieties in relation to the aftermath and how they reflect internal Icelandic discussions that are entangled with Iceland’s past as a Danish dependency. The closing of McDonald’s restaurants in a year after the crash is a vivid example of anxieties in regard to Iceland’s global circumstances, simultaneously reflecting persistent geopolitical order of an unequal world.The research on which this article is based was funded by the University of Iceland Re search Fund and Rannís - The Icelandic Center for Research (grant number 130426-052)Peer Reviewe

Bounded and Multiple Identities

Identités limitées et multiples. Identifications ethniques des WoDaaBe et des FulBe. — Les théories sur le nationalisme ont analysé dans quelle mesure le nationalisme est un phénomène récent, et ont mis l’accent sur le rôle déterminant de l’ethnicité. Cet article s’intéresse à l’ethnicité en utilisant des textes coloniaux et des données ethnographiques concernant les FulBe et les WoDaaBe du Niger. J’insiste sur le fait que les classifications établies par d’autres — et souvent perçues comme étant à l’origine de nouvelles identités — peuvent être incohérentes et fondées sur divers facteurs. En m’inspirant des théories féministes sur les identités multiples, j’avance que les identifications ethniques se mêlent à diverses autres sources d’identifications, les individus manipulant sans cesse leur identité… Depuis longtemps, dans les textes coloniaux et postcoloniaux, les FulBe sont caractérisés en des termes raciaux et essentialistes, ce qui rend leur classification particulièrement intéressante pour cette étude. Cet article met l’accent sur les actes et la créativité des personnes impliquées, et précise que même si l’ethnicité constitue une part importante de l’identité, celle-ci dépend aussi d’autres facteurs qui s’imposent en fonction des contextes.Theories of nationalism have debated to what extent nationalism is a recent phenomenon, ethnicity playing a major role in that regard. The article focuses on ethnicity by using colonial texts and ethnographic data in regard to WoDaaBe FulBe in Niger. I stress that colonial classifications of others—often believed to have created new ethnicities—can be incoherent and base on various actors. Following feminist theories of multiple identities, I claim that ethnic identifications are interwoven with various other sources of identifications, individuals manipulating and identifying with others in a shifting ways in real life. FulBe have been imagined for a long time in various colonial and post-colonial texts, often characterized in racial and essentialist terms, making their classification especially interesting for this purpose. The article emphasizes the agency and creativity of those involved, stressing that even though ethnicity constitutes an important part of identity, other kinds of boundaries become relevant and are emphasized in various contexts