The enlargement of the European Union to include Central and Eastern Europe (2004, 2007) has been followed by the rise in power of rightwing politics in Europe. Factors that contributed to the ensuing institutionalisation of right-wing parties include: the European debt crisis (2009-2018), the imposing of austerity measures, and the unprecedented influx of migrants from South-West Asia and Africa during a period that has been termed the European migrant crisis (2015-2019). As living standards fell, right-wing politicians blamed the decline on both internal and external immigrants and refugees by singling out incomers as a threat to economic and cultural stability. Right-wing populists began galvanising processes of identification among citizens through the use of discourses of discrimination. A newly-fortified cultural racism provided followers with a mechanism of legitimacy for their right-wing beliefs. This research project will study the intricate interplay of performance, race, and immigration. It will investigate the ways in which both left-leaning civic performances (civil protests, speeches, policies...) and artistic performances (theatre, dance, various artistic interventions...) are capable of mobilising processes of identification that draw upon anti-discriminatory discourses and that can permeate and sustain democratic institutions. The study combines archival work with qualitative methods (content analysis and interviews) and provides insights from performance studies, critical race theory, psychoanalytic theory, social movement studies, political philosophy and affect theory through the lens of discourse theory. Turning to discourse theory, and using a self-critical, European lens, the project explores processes of identification that contest cultural racism, discrimination and other forms of intolerance.
