While mainstream politicians steer clear of any suggestion that Europe should abandon its commitment to ‘unity in diversity’, there is a rising tide of ‘populist’ rhetoric which warns that Europe’s identity – an identity supposedly forged by its ‘cultural, religious and humanist inheritance’ – is threatened by migration, and especially Muslim immigrants and refugees.
Our research cluster examines the diversity of cultural, political and philosophical ideas invoked in Europe's name, the ways these have been politically contested and reshaped, and the extent to which they intersect with the lived experiences of Europeans. We combine the methods of philosophy, sociology, political science and anthropology..
Highlights
Politics of Last Resort: Governing by Emergency in the European Union
by Jonathan White
Prominent in the EU's recent transformations has been the tendency to advance extraordinary measures in the name of crisis response. From emergency lending to macro-economics, border management to Brexit, policies are pursued unconventionally and as measures of last resort. This book investigates the nature, rise, and implications of this politics of emergency as it appears in the transnational setting. As the author argues, recourse to this method of rule is an expression of the deeper weakness of executive power in today's Europe. It is how policy-makers contend with rising socio-economic power and diminishing representative ties, seeking fall-back authority in the management of crises. In the structure of the EU they find incentives and few impediments. Whereas political exceptionalism tends to be associated with sovereign power, here it is power's diffusion and functional disaggregation that spurs politics in the emergency mode. The effect of these governing patterns is not just to challenge and reshape ideas of EU legitimacy rooted in constitutionalism and technocracy. The politics of emergency fosters a counter-politics in its mirror image, as populists and others play with themes of necessity and claim the right to disobedience in extremis. The book examines the prospects for democracy once the politics of emergency takes hold, and what it might mean to put transnational politics on a different footing.
Impact and Public Engagement
Academics in the "Culture and Society" stream provide expertise on European philosophy, democracy, technocracy, populism, politics of left and right, security, religious conflict, minority rights, anti-Semitisim, Islamophobia, post-conflict resolution, and transitional justice, Our academic staff are regularly interviewed in media outlets including the BBC, Sky News, CNN, Sputnik, Al-Jazeera, Der Spiegel. They are invited as keynote and guest speakers to most prestigious national and international universities including Harvard, Columbia, Cambridge, Oxford, Stanford, Princeton, Cornell Universities. They present their research findings in conferences in the UK, Europe, and the United States.
Key research themes
- Ideas and Images of Europe
- Post-conflict Resolution and Transitional Justice
- Ideologies, Parties and Political Movements
- Ideas of Political Community and Place
- Multiculturalism European Identities
- Religious Belief and Securalism
- Minorities
Academic staff working in this area & publications