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- Convenors:
-
Paul Mepschen
(University College Utrecht)
Patrick Wielowiejski (Humboldt University Berlin)
Christopher Sweetapple (University of Massachusetts)
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- Discussant:
-
Nitzan Shoshan
(El Colegio de México)
- Format:
- Panels
- Location:
- SO-E413
- Sessions:
- Wednesday 15 August, -, -
Time zone: Europe/Stockholm
Short Abstract:
How are liberal values such as gender equality and gay rights put into the service of a globally ascending neo-nationalism? This panel brings together ethnographers studying the frictions and entanglements between liberalism, neo-nationalism, and sexuality from the far right to queer activism.
Long Abstract:
The era of post-Fordist liberalism has met fierce opposition in the rise of authoritarian far-right neo-nationalisms. While liberal values such as gender equality, multiculturalism, and gay rights continue to proliferate in the institutions of Europe, so too do their adversaries: anti-feminism, Islamophobia, and heterosexism. However, we're not confronted with a clear divide between liberals and anti-liberals, but rather with a tangled ideological web in which globalizing gender equality and gay rights are put into the service of likewise globalizing anti-Muslim discourses and projects.
Interdisciplinary work on homo- and femonationalism has demonstrated how the idea of "European values" has helped generate the figure of "the Muslim" as the fundamental "Other" of Europe. It is the strength of ethnography to complicate and disentangle such historical conjunctures through close attention to everyday practices and lives lived adjacently to the realm of formal politics. Political ethnographies attuned to recent theoretical developments in feminist and queer theory, on the one hand, and interdisciplinary investigations of racializations and nation-state formations, on the other, have begun to reveal the contours and dimensions of this tangled web of surprising coalitions, novel assemblages and (re)invented traditions.
We are looking to include ethnographically informed contributions focusing on the everyday politics of sexual democracy and sexual nationalisms. Bringing together ethnographers working at differentangles of this ideological field - from far-right parties to queer grassroots activism - this panel aims at challenging and updating our theoretical vocabularies on the intersectionality of neo-nationalism, racism, and the far right.
Accepted papers:
Session 1 Wednesday 15 August, 2018, -Paper short abstract:
I reassess the contributions to anthropological theorizations of (neo)liberalism proffered by Elizabeth Povinelli and Brian Massumi, showing how both authors provide invaluable tools with which anthropologists might better investigate the tricky interrelations of nationalism, racism and sexuality.
Paper long abstract:
This presentation reassesses the conceptual contributions to anthropological theorizations of (neo)liberalism proffered by Elizabeth Povinelli and Brian Massumi. It is argued that both authors provide extremely timely, though distinct, tools with which anthropologists might better investigate the interrelations of nationalism, racism and sexuality in contemporary Europe. Povinelli has chronicled the ever-deeper reach of liberalism, blending multiple disciplinary angles of approach, including semiotic, historical, queer, ethnographic and philosophical ones. In the first portion of my comments, I provide a summary account of these works, bringing Povinelli's unique conceptual vocabulary to the fore, especially her evolving theorizations of "late liberalism", tracing what is both explicitly and implicitly musical in her approach to periodizing and diagramming the global socius. This occasions a review her portrait of the fundamental grid of disciplinary powers which organize difference, namely the mutually oppositional regimes of what she calls "autology" and "genealogy". Massumi, too, has richly theorized the grid-like dimensions of what he calls "an ecology of powers". In the final portion of my talk, I explicate this approach, drawing out both Jasbir Puar's explication of Massumi's notion of affective and semiotic capture via grids in her account of "homonationalism" as well as Massumi's more recent discovery of a form of power seemingly new to the historical scene, namely, ontopower. I conclude by suggesting some of the ways the latter concept might help anthropologist refine their understandings of (anti-)liberalism, secularity, nationalism, racism and sexuality, especially as related to what Shoshan has called "affective governance".
Paper short abstract:
Drawing on fieldwork material on non-heteronormative urban citizenship in Wroclaw (PL), in the proposed paper I discuss ambivalent workings of "homonationalism" in a specific "postsocialist" setting, and their problematization by discursive practices of differentiated non-heteronormative subjects.
Paper long abstract:
Sharing criticism toward "homonationalism" embodied by the LGBT movement based on identity politics and strategies rooted in civil rights paradigm of a (neo)liberal type, in the proposed paper I argue that such criticism is entirely justified only in the context of unproblematized global North/South axis. Drawing on fieldwork material on non-heteronormative urban citizenship in Wroclaw (PL), I show that in the specific "postsocialist" settings, a concept of "liberal LGBT rights" can be both emancipatory and symbolically violent. Because cultural and legal "sexual citizenship" has not been so far recognized by the Polish state, it still keeps the subversive potential. Fighting for recognition, LGBT activists use all available resources, including collaboration with (neo)liberal (national and international) subjects. At the same time, more or less explicitly, they distance themselves from groups perceived as "not properly queer." Contrarily, the latter problematize the LGBT movement as representing a minority who seeks the same rights as a majority within the (neo)liberal national state. These ambivalent workings of "homonationalism" are exemplified by Wroclaw case. In this particular urban context imaginaries of "socialist past," "Western models," "global activism," "(neo)liberal capitalism," "Polish nationalism," and the like are all strategically used for negotiating personal sense of belonging to variously constructed communities, which in turn both supports and subverts mainstream LGBT activism. The fieldwork material has originated from the action-research project "Divercity: Preventing and combating homo- and transphobia in small and medium cities across Europe" (EU Rights, Equality and Citizenship Program).
Paper short abstract:
The paper engages with the formation of gay and LGBTIQ heritage, which involves the transformation of the suffering of sexual Others into spectacle: events to be regarded and enjoyed by spectators that turn into publics. This demonstrates a religious dimension in contemporary secular culture.
Paper long abstract:
As secular ideologies and practices have grown increasingly important within practices of belonging in Western Europe, the religious has become framed as out of sync with liberal, secular moralities, as 'Other'. Muslim citizens have been the most conspicuous objects in recent years of 'secular nostalgia' (Bracke, 2012). Religious Others are framed as trespassing on a sacrosanct moral landscape, distorting the dream of a unified, secular, and 'progressive' nation. Simultaneously, sexual alterity has come to play a central role in the politics of secular identity construction. In this paper I zoom in on the heritagization of gay suffering in Amsterdam and Berlin, as materialised in the famous Amsterdam 'homomonument' and several monuments and places of remembrance in Berlin; in art and historical expositions, and in plays and books. I propose to discuss how these practices of heritagization bring into being different publics - gay and straight - with complex relationships to religious, secular, and sexual histories, starting with the conviction that one of the central aspects of the politics of heritagization is cultural and social self-regard. The formation of gay and LGBTIQ heritage in many cases involves the transformation of the suffering of sexual Others into spectacles: events to be regarded, experienced and enjoyed by spectators that turn into (durable) publics. This can also be said to demonstrate a religious dimension in contemporary culture. When it comes to the suffering of Others, to 'the most terrible matters of history, we're all supposed to act as if we're in church' (Robin, 2016).
Paper short abstract:
In this paper, the rejection of queerness through the German far right is considered not as "homophobic" but rather as anti-liberal. While gays and lesbians can be accepted by national conservatives, everything that counts as "liberal" is dismissed, such as equality, gender fluidity, constructivism.
Paper long abstract:
Far-right parties and movements are often perceived as "homophobic," an accusation that they themselves refute. But whenever they try to appear as gay-friendly, they are criticised for "instrumentalisation" or for being "strategic." In this paper, however, I will venture to argue that it misses the point to call the contemporary far right "homophobic." Instead, they are mainly anti-egalitarian, and their rejection of queerness and gender fluidity is an expression of their anti-liberalism. Gay men and lesbian women might very well be embraced as part of the far-right national imaginary, as long as they adhere to certain nationalist and conservative values.
Taking as a point of departure the upsurge of a far-right movement that can in essence be called national conservative, I will use the German case as an example to illustrate the discursive differences between a "homonationalism" that is based on liberal ideology, and a heteronormative, but not necessarily homophobic anti-liberalism that is based on (radical) conservative ideology.
Based on ethnographic data from the national conservative Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) and texts by German national conservative authors, this paper will then enquire into the core elements of conservative anti-liberalism: an anti-egalitarianism that rejects the idea that "all men are equal," an essentialism whose main enemy is "constructivism," and an identitarian nationalism.
Paper short abstract:
In this paper the booming of the Krampus phenomenon (performances of fiercely masked men) in Austria will be analysed as a highly sexualised form of white male identity politics. Dependent on context, the masculinities produced reject and claim liberal "European values".
Paper long abstract:
Recently Austria is witnessing an unprecedented Krampus boom. In December, young men nearly all over the country dress up in masks that invoke associations with the devil or demons, wear long fur suits and roam the streets scaring and attacking onlookers with the switches they carry. Over the last two decades, the number of troupes and organized events has skyrocketed. Most of these can be termed 'invented traditions' as there are only a handful of places with a history of the practice from before the mid-20th century. Based on ethnographic fieldwork on Krampus practices in Austria, we argue that they serve as important sources of identity making at the centre of which are relations between men and women as well as between ethnic Austrians and immigrants. Through an engagement with anthropological discussions on identity and masculinity, we suggest that the recent Krampus boom is indicative of new forms of white identity politics in Europe.
Recently we argued that "we are certain that the main allure of becoming Krampus to young white men in Austria today is indeed nostalgia for a form of unambiguous, confident, heteronormative masculinity in an ethnically homogenous society that is far from their everyday experience". In this paper we would like to drive the argument further and stress the sexualised violence which is performed by many of the troupes. This fierce kind of masculinity and the phantasies about Muslim men attacking "our" women call for anthropological analyses of neo-liberal subjectivities.
Paper short abstract:
The Polish LGBT movement is an important player on the arena of Poland's post-communist minority politics. In contrast to the far right xenophobic principle "God-Honor-Fatherland", its visual representations and performative practices of protest support the fight for more diversity in Poland.
Paper long abstract:
Since the collapse of communism in 1989 and the introduction of Poland's transformation the issues of protest are ubiquitous in the Polish society. Due to different ideological views, systems of values and visions of Poland, the Polish post-communist landscape of protest is characterized by a strong socio-political dichotomy.
On the one hand, right-wing movements such as national-conservative All-Polish Youth or the National Rebirth of Poland aim to propagate the "patriotic" spirit and create a homogeneous "Great National Poland". On the other hand, the liberal pro-European LGBT movement fights against homophobia and xenophobia by rejecting a nationalist ultra-Catholic vision of a "Poland for Poles" ruled by priests. Crucial for these two diametrically different visions of Poland is the realm of symbols, which helps to construct collective identities, define boundaries and characterize the narratives of inclusion and exclusion.
In order to achieve its goals, the Polish LGBT movement produces a wide range of visual symbols exposed in form of posters, comics or street art as well as performative urban practices like demonstrations or happenings. By presenting a selection of examples, I would like to outline which (counter) narratives are characteristic for the Polish war of symbols, which (utopian) realities they offer and present what they reveal about the socio-political structures of the post-communist society and the neo-nationalism in Poland.
The presented paper refers to my ethnological doctoral thesis concerning Polish culture of protest after 1989, methodologically based on a combination of discourse analysis, participant observations and semi-structured interviews.
Paper short abstract:
Focusing on a controversy about a poster campaign that depicts 'mixed couples' intimately kissing to promote free partner choice, coproduced by a feminist group and an ethnonationalist party, we analyze the audiences it addresses and the work it does through critical engaging with femonationalism.
Paper long abstract:
In the spring of 2017 the City Council of Rotterdam launched a poster campaign depicting 'mixed couples' intimately kissing with as framing text: 'In the Netherlands you choose your partner yourself'. This campaign involved the collaboration of rather distinct parties, including the feminist organization Femmes-For-Freedom (promoting marital freedom and gender equality), that had devised the campaign, and Ronald Schneider of Leefbaar Rotterdam ('Liveable Rotterdam', an ethno-nationalist populist party), the municipal alderman for integration, who launched the campaign.
In our paper we first analyze the work this campaign does, comparing the imagery presented with earlier Benetton campaigns that also engaged with visualizing/producing gender, ethnicity/race and nationality. We discuss the politics involved in this poster campaign, through a focus on the different audiences it addresses, using the concept of femonationalism as coined by Sara Farris. We then critically engage with the underlying themes, the relation of mixed marriages to integration and the notion of 'the right to fall in love'. We end with a note on the different styles of representation Femmes-For-Freedom has opted for when it moved the poster campaign to Amsterdam