Europe’s borders are drawn to exclude alien times and places
Evidence
The first two papers focus on the relationship between “Europe and its Others.” Jan Nederveen Pieterse’s exploration of this theme provides insight into the ways in which the “idea of Europe” is predicated constitutively on processes that have created the “other,” those who fail to belong, both within and outside Europe. Focusing on the ways in which markers of “difference” became a mechanism for the development of images of religious, cultural, and racial difference, Pieterse’s account serves to remind us of the complex role of internal and external “boundaries” in shaping modern-day ideas about European cultures and societies. — David Theo Goldberg, John Solomos, A Companion to Racial and Ethnic Studies, 167 (
#corroborates, via linked claim)
Anderson’s witty account highlights the illogicality of recent definitions of Europe. Yet it is precisely the politics of civilizational identity that is at work in the discourse of Europe’s extent. For Poles, Czechs, and Hungarians it is a matter not only of participating in the European common market, but of distancing themselves from a socialist history. Where Europe’s borders are to be drawn is also a matter of representing what European civilization is. These borders involve more than a confused geography. They reflect a history whose unconfused purpose is to separate Europe from alien times (“communism,” “Islam”) as well as from alien places (“Islamdom,” “Russia”). — Talal Asad, Formations of the Secular, 831 (
#expands, via linked claim)
We try to imagine more enlightened cartographies: a map of the Americas with no borders; a map turned upside down; or one in which the countries have borders that are organically drawn by geography, culture, and immigration, and not by the capricious hands of economic domination and political bravado. (Guillermo Gomez-Pena, In Chicana and Chicano scholarship and cultural productions, the US-Mexico border zone is conceptualized not only as a point of multiple migrations, but also as a site informing and housing the various identity formations for this ethnoracial group. — David Theo Goldberg, John Solomos, A Companion to Racial and Ethnic Studies, 2468 (
#complicates, via linked claim)
Categorization
- XREF: connects to: Europe’s contested borders function to separate it from communist and Islamic alienness — Talal Asad, Formations of the Secular:…, 831; Borders could be drawn organically by culture rather than imperial power — David Theo Goldberg, John Solomos, A Companion to Racial and Ethnic Studies, 2468; Borders are cherished fictions that contradict messy geopolitical reality. (+12 more)
Broader Connections
- The idea of Europe is constitutively built on creating outsiders who fail to belong
#corroborates(0.93) — David Theo Goldberg, John Solomos, A Companion to Racial and Ethnic Studies, 167 - Europe’s contested borders function to separate it from communist and Islamic alienness
#expands(0.92) — Talal Asad, Formations of the Secular, 831 - Borders could be drawn organically by culture rather than imperial power
#complicates(0.78) — David Theo Goldberg, John Solomos, A Companion to Racial and Ethnic Studies, 2468 - Borders are cherished fictions that contradict messy geopolitical reality.
#complicates(0.74)