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The Normative Threat of Eastern Europe: The Return of ‘Eastern Europe’ as an Ontological Insecurity Trope

Malksoo, Maria (2018) The Normative Threat of Eastern Europe: The Return of ‘Eastern Europe’ as an Ontological Insecurity Trope. In: 12th Pan-European Conference on International Relations 'A New Hope: Back to the Future of International Relations', EISA PEC18, 12-15 September 2018, Prague, Czech Republic. (Unpublished) (The full text of this publication is not currently available from this repository. You may be able to access a copy if URLs are provided) (KAR id:76693)

The full text of this publication is not currently available from this repository. You may be able to access a copy if URLs are provided. (Contact us about this Publication)

Abstract

A combination of undemocratic developments in Hungary and Poland and the eastern Europeans’ foot-dragging about solidary burden-sharing at the height of the refugee crisis in Europe has brought back the familiar allusions of eastern Europeans as troublemakers for the European unity and peace. This paper offers a discursive dissection of ‘eastern Europe’ as a subtly subversive challenge to Europe’s security of ‘self’, entailing a fear of being overrun by an ‘Other’ perceived as endangering one’s particular normative and cultural order. Proceeding from Ingrid Creppell’s (2011) notion of normative threat, I argue that the reappearance of ‘eastern Europe’ as an ontological insecurity trope points at a set of deeper anxieties within Europe, some of which are systemic (doubts about the efficacy of integration and the legitimacy of the European Union) and some more contingent (vacillation about defending the European political order from populist upsurge amidst ‘resurgent nationalism’).

Item Type: Conference or workshop item (Paper)
Uncontrolled keywords: normative threat; ontological (in)security; eastern Europe; Poland; Hungary; liminality; illiberal democracy; populism
Subjects: J Political Science
J Political Science > JZ International relations
Divisions: Divisions > Division of Human and Social Sciences > School of Politics and International Relations
Depositing User: Maria Malksoo
Date Deposited: 22 Sep 2019 11:06 UTC
Last Modified: 16 Feb 2021 14:07 UTC
Resource URI: https://kar.kent.ac.uk/id/eprint/76693 (The current URI for this page, for reference purposes)

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