Periodic Reporting for period 1 - Identifications (Identifications. A Psychoanalytic/Political Study of Performances Countering intra-European Cultural Racism)
Période du rapport: 2023-09-01 au 2026-02-28
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.
During the project, I developed an interdisciplinary framework to analyse how identifications are produced and contested through civic, artistic, and everyday performances in contemporary Europe, and how such processes can support counter-discrimination in contexts of polarisation. The work combined conceptual research (performance studies, discourse theory, psychoanalytic theory, political philosophy) with case-based analysis of contemporary mobilisations and public-space dynamics. Main achievements include: (1) an open-access peer-reviewed journal article presenting the project’s theoretical contribution; (2) an open-access Zenodo publication translating research findings about identification on the Serbian student movement into a widely accessible format; (3) the organisation of an international academic conference at Ca’ Foscari University of Venice (20 November 2024); and (4) the editorial preparation of a forthcoming open-access special issue (Aisthesis, May 2026) that consolidates the project’s results into a durable collective publication.
The project advances beyond the state of the art by proposing identification as an embodied practice that emerges at the intersection of discourse, affect, and performance, rather than as a purely ideological or representational phenomenon. It innovates by integrating performance studies with discourse theory and psychoanalytic insights on affect, fantasy, and the unconscious dimensions of attachment to political narratives. This makes it possible to explain how exclusionary, antagonistic identifications are sustained (including far-right formations) and how counter-identifications can be organised through agonistic, democratic practices. The project’s results provide a transferable analytical toolkit applicable across multiple European contexts where cultural racism, polarisation, and conflicts over public space shape democratic life.