Creating Europe from the Margins: Mobilities and Racism in Postcolonial Europe

This edited volume explores the idea of Europe through a focus on its margins, highlighting the relations and tensions between the Global North and the Global South and internal regional differentiation within Europe. It emphasizes the need to consider Europe from critical interdisciplinary perspectives, highlighting historical and contemporary issues of racism and colonialism. The book explores margins conceptually and positions them as open to negotiation and contestation, characterized by ambiguity. Using case studies from different places, the contributors analyze how different geopolitical hierarchies intersect with racialized subject positions of diverse people living in Europe, while also exploring issues of gender, class, sexuality, religion, and nationality. The chapters interrogate the hierarchies at play in the processes of being and becoming 'European' and the ongoing impacts of race and colonialism.

Format: Hardback
Length: 216 pages
Publication date: 10 August 2023
Publisher: Taylor & Francis Ltd

This edited volume delves into the concept of Europe by examining its margins. The chapters within the volume engage in a critical analysis of the relations and tensions arising from the divisions between the Global North and the Global South, as well as the internal regional differentiation within Europe itself. By emphasizing the importance of considering Europe from critical interdisciplinary perspectives, the volume highlights historical and contemporary issues of racism and colonialism.

While recent discussions of migration into "Fortress Europe" may suggest that Europe possesses clearly defined geographic, political, and cultural boundaries, this book argues that the reality is more complex. The book explores the margins conceptually and posits margins and centers as open to negotiation and contestation, characterized by ambiguity. Thus, margins can be contextualized in relation to hierarchies within Europe, with distinct processes involved in creating boundaries and borders between different types of Europes and Europeans.

Through the deployment of case studies from various locations, such as Iceland, Italy, Poland, Spain, Turkey, the United Kingdom, Romania, Cyprus, Greece, Sicily, European colonies in the Caribbean, and the former Yugoslavia, the contributors examine how different geopolitical hierarchies intersect with racialized subject positions of diverse individuals residing in Europe. They also explore issues of gender, class, sexuality, religion, and nationality. Some chapters focus on the fortification of Europe's "borderland," while others emphasize internal hierarchies within Europe, critiquing the significance of spatial boundaries in an increasingly digitalized Europe.

In doing so, the chapters interrogate the hierarchies at play in the processes of being and becoming "European" and the ongoing impacts of race. This edited volume contributes to our understanding of Europe by shedding light on its margins and the complex dynamics that shape its identity and experiences.

Weight: 585g
Dimension: 234 x 156 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781032209791