SCHILLER GOES TRANSNATIONAL: JULIE PAUCKER AND ROBERT SCHUSTER'S ‘MALALAI – DIE AFGHANISCHE JUNGFRAU VON ORLEANS’ (2017)

Introduction

ABSTRACTThe so-called ‘refugee crisis’ marks a crucial juncture in Italian politics. Tapping into the crisis of legitimacy of contemporary European politics, the controversy over migration has triggered discussion of socioeconomic, cultural and security issues. Pressured by public opinion, the EU and Italy have followed the logic of exceptionality, trying to put a halt to the inflow of asylum-seekers rather than pursuing the logic of normalcy that must apply to migration at a global level. Institutional and mainstream actors have mirrored public anxieties and security concerns, endorsing emergency narratives, aggressive policing and militarised border control. Unable to engage with citizens’ concerns, they have helped to conflate migration with insecurity, creating a fertile breeding ground for xenophobic, populist reactions. The paper suggests that the refugee crisis is best understood in relation to other ongoing crises in the EU, and that the way it is handled will have significant consequences for future action, shaping the way European societies cope with forthcoming crises and transforming the relationship between states and citizens. Accordingly, it argues that the permanent state of emergency characterising governmental responses so far does not bode well for the future of liberal democracy in Europe.

Focusing on the construction of the “refugee crisis” in mainstream daily newspapers in Sweden, Jordan, and Turkey in 2015, this chapter disentangles the crisis discourse into its specific components. Newspapers in the three countries focused on the “refugee crisis” as a source of concern for policy and politics at the local, national, and global levels. In comparing the discourses in the three contexts, despite their many differences, the analysis shows that the “refugee crisis” is constructed around uncertainties and inabilities to fathom the demands and consequences of such inflows of large numbers of people. Such uncertainties provide the basis on which a sense of moral, communal, or institutional crises become understood as a refugee crisis in different settings.

Most scholarly analyses of memory politics investigate how historical events are remembered selectively in order to justify political choices. Recent research has shown that ‘silencing the past’, notably the omission of relevant historical events, is also an important aspect of memory politics. This article examines how Italian leaders silenced significant periods of Italy’s history during the refugee and migrant crisis in 2014–2018. Drawing on memory politics and postcolonial literature, the article argues that Italian foreign policy discourses are based on both historical oblivion and the long-standing myth of the ‘good Italian’. The myth negates the controversial aspects of Italy’s colonial experience and permeates the country’s self-perception as an international actor. Italian foreign policy narratives also silenced the highly relevant precedent of Italian migration abroad. The focus is on the public speeches of Italy’s main political actors, notably national ministers and the leaders of the largest parties in parliament.

Most scholarly analyses of memory politics investigate how historical events are remembered selectively in order to justify political choices. Recent research has shown that ‘silencing the past’, notably the omission of relevant historical events, is also an important aspect of memory politics. This article examines how Italian leaders silenced significant periods of Italy’s history during the refugee and migrant crisis in 2014–2018. Drawing on memory politics and postcolonial literature, the article argues that Italian foreign policy discourses are based on both historical oblivion and the long-standing myth of the ‘good Italian’. The myth negates the controversial aspects of Italy’s colonial experience and permeates the country’s self-perception as an international actor. Italian foreign policy narratives also silenced the highly relevant precedent of Italian migration abroad. The focus is on the public speeches of Italy’s main political actors, notably national ministers and the leaders of the largest parties in parliament.

<strong> TICKETS AVAILABLE THROUGH EVENTBRITE </strong> November 18th 2016 Silverstone Room – TW3.7.01.A London School of Economics and Political Science One million migrants crossed the borders of Europe in 2015, in, what came to be known as the "refugee crisis". This Symposium focuses on the mediation of this "crisis" at a trans-European and local level, in order to address the questions:  * How is "the refugee crisis" communicated in

This article presents the question of Italian national identity as it is explored through the works of Sebastiano Vassalli (b. 1941). Vassalli's focus on discovering the roots of the national character has been a defining feature of his oeuvre. In recent years and in an international context, social theorists, political scientists, historians and others have contributed to a now substantial literature on the concepts of nation, national identity and nationalism, concerns of particular relevance for the culture and society of today. Vassalli conducts a literary investigation of many of the topics addressed in contemporary academic discussions of the concept of nation. He presents an often controversial and provocative vision of the national character and argues that it is necessary for writers and critics to examine Italian national identity through history. As a result, he believes that only by identifying and confronting the mistakes, or “character flaws”, of the collective nation will a truly mature society emerge.

The world has been witnessing a rising number of forcibly displaced persons in the backdrop of the Ukraine War and several intrastate and inter-state conflicts. Widespread and large-scale displacements have created a new global catastrophe that threatens peace everywhere in the world. It is true that peace, whether perceived as a means or an end, is the greatest pursuit of human society. Although the world has seen remarkable progress of human civilization and enormous economic and technological changes in the past decades, it is marked by enduring conflicts, disputes, war and violence. Ironically, the world remains a place where people have been pursuing self-seeking goals in highly individualistic cultures. States remain hostage to power politics with an abiding focus on geopolitical and economic interests. The refugee crisis in the world demonstrates limitations of the global order based on distribution of power and capitalism. Refugee crisis is a trend not a blip. Precisely, it is the outcome of conflicts and persecution at intrastate, inter-state, regional and global levels. The United Nations through its manifold activities – security, development, cultural and environmental- has been contributing to peace, but the crisis persists. In this context, the paper is an attempt to understand the relations between the refugee crisis and peace in order to find ways of mitigating the sufferings and traumas of refugees worldwide. The paper argues that the ongoing global refugee crisis has assumed a formidable challenge to peace in the world that needs an urgent attention from the global community before it gets too late. It strives to remind the global community about the need for repatriation of growing number of refugees in the world.

The article compares key normative and judicial responses to the 2015–2016 “refugee crisis” in Slovenia and Austria. It does so by comparing the asylum statistics, the main changes to the legislation reflecting populist reactions to the “refugee crisis,” and judicial responses to these changes and reactions. The qualitative legal analysis is based on examples of the most important changes and responses. The article considers the populistic context of these changes, as discussed by some political scientists, who demonstrate that with the crisis, a new wave of populism—“the populist Othering of migrants”—emerged.

The intensification of different types of migration movements during the last decades is an expression of growing interconnections at the global level. The so called ‘refugee crisis’ is the most visible sign of this intensification. It currently challenges societies to rethink the processes of integrating those fleeing from humanitarian crises and wars. Portuguese civil society has pioneered the creation of a Refugee Support Platform, aimed to address the challenges associated with the arrival of refugee families. Within this platform, an e-learning course was created to help institutions and host families prepare for this task. In the article we first describe this course, focusing our analysis on the relevance of this initiative for institutions, families, and private citizens that wish to welcome refugees in Portugal. We then briefly reflect on the literature pertaining to intercultural dialogue and social tensions. In the final section we analyse the voices of those who attended the course. We conclude with an analysis of the contents of the course modules and the participation of the trainees as a contribution to their self-transformation.

Migration – and the experiences of migrants – continue to occupy an important and controversial place in the scholarly and political debates on contemporary labour markets and societies. As new scenarios emerge at local, national and global levels, new insights and perspectives become necessary. The articles in this themed issue reflect the interest Work, Employment and Society has had in the topic of labour migrations and migrants at work for well over a decade and which led, for example, to the themed issue Migration at Work: Spaces, Borders and Boundaries in 32(5), 2018. Migration has of course been a prominent issue across the social sciences, and in recent years particularly in relation to the ‘refugee crisis’ of 2015 and to intra-European migration ahead of and in light of Brexit. The experiences of migrants from Eastern and Central Europe in the workplace, their overqualification and devaluing of their cultural capital, and their positioning within segmented labour markets have produced a number of articles in past issues (e.g. Ciupijus, 2011; Samaluk, 2016; Sirkeci et al., 2018) to which those in the current issue (Leschke and Weiss; Rydzik and Anitha) make an important addition. [...]

This chapter examines the political contestation on the 2015–16 refugee inflow as it was presented in the Greek press, in a period of heated debate. Using political claims analysis carried out within the context of the TransSOL project, we studied the main attributes of the public discourse as reflected in the political claims of actors located in three national newspapers from August 2015 to April 2016, on refugees and their arrival to Europe. In particular, we examined the protagonists of public debates –both claimants and addressees of public claims– the issues which were discussed, the form in which the claims were raised as an indication of the contentiousness of this field, the positioning –positive or negative– of claims towards refugees, as well as the chronicle of the debate. Two media attention cycles are identified, based on the intensification of claims-making on refugees. This study envisages to contribute to a better understanding of the interplay of different political, social and context-specific influences in the discursive construction of the so called ‘refugee crisis.’

The emergence of nation states is a relatively recent phenomenon in human history. Yet its impact on everyday life is ubiquitous. The purpose of the present article is to synthesise research from several social science disciplines to identify similarities and differences between legal and structural definitions of nation states studied by political scientists and historians and psychological conceptions of nation states studied by social psychologists. Using a social psychological lens, we investigate how nation states as political institutions influence psychological conceptions of national identity and how these construals have unique effects on perceivers’ attitudes, behaviour, and inclusion of diverse ethnic groups within the nation. Four research questions guide this article. First, how do modern nation states define citizenship legally and to what extent do these definitions fit psychological conceptions of nationality that individuals report explicitly or implicitly? Second, to what extent do these implicit and explicit conceptions of national identity influence majority group members’ actions and decisions in both positive and negative directions? Third, what types of perceiver characteristics (e.g., national identification, political ideology, status, social dominance) influence attitudes, behaviour, and inclusion of ethnic minorities and immigrants? And finally, in what ways do conceptions of nationality impact the self-concept and well-being of ethnic minorities and immigrants within a nation? We summarise extant research that addresses each question and conclude by identifying unanswered questions and avenues for future work.

Despite the fact that Hungary was less affected by the 2015 migration crisis in objective terms—i.e. the negligible number of immigrants entering and settling in the country in the last years-, the Hungarian government has been pushing an extreme anti-immigration political communication since 2015, which resulted in an intensive and highly politicised public discourse about immigration. This analysis aims at exploring the involvement of political scientists in the online public discourse about the migration and refugee crisis in Hungary between 2015 and 2019. In contrast with other countries, where high salient political crises have stimulated political scientists’ public engagement, this analysis finds that such participation does not apply to the Hungarian case. The low visibility of political scientists is accompanied by the adoption among participants in news portals of either a partisan, pro-government stance or a neutral approach to the issue, while critical positions with the government are almost inexistent. These patterns suggest the influence of both the illiberal institutional turn of the Hungarian media environment and the decrease in academic freedom in the country, as factors deterring public engagement among political scientists in the immigration issue, particularly of those who could adopt a critical position.

Status of the issue. The development of the theory of strategic culture began more than seven decades ago. To date, the theory has evolved from the theoretical justification of the behavioral styles of elites representing institutions and security services, to the development of models for the use of national strategic cultures as an important tool for political struggle at the global and regional levels. It should be noted that Russian political science is significantly lagging behind foreign science in the theoretical understanding of the problem and in the development of effective models for countering the Anglo-Saxon strategic culture, which has an openly aggressive Russophobic content. Results. In the course of political analysis of the evolution of the theory of strategic culture, four stages of its development and their features were identified. At the first stage-the 40-60s of the XX century, the main content was the study of national styles in strategic planning in the field of national security, caused by a military clash during the World War II. Stereotyping of the initial grounds and a certain ethnocentrism as the main features of the stage, were subjected to reasonable criticism and stimulated the further development of theoretical provisions of the problem. At the second stage – the 70-90s of the XX century researchers developed a methodology for structural and functional analysis, institutionalism and modeling of competitive relations between regional actors. This was caused by the advent of the era of nuclear deterrence. The third stage of the wave of research on strategic culture is formed at the turn of the XX and XXI centuries. Theoretical and methodological research is carried out during this period in the framework of a critical rethinking of previous approaches and the formation of a trend towards neorealism. On the basis of comparative analysis, distinctions and justifications of different types of strategic culture and corresponding strategic thinking, as well as the behavior of actors, were identified. At the present stage of theory evolution, the main attention of researchers is focused on the dynamics of changing strategic culture under the influence of threats and risks of globalization and specific events, identifying competing narratives within countries themselves, searching for effective models for changing existing national strategic cultures in the interests of the dominant regional strategic cultures – Anglo-Saxon, European, Asian (Chinese). The effectiveness of applying the results of Western research programs in political practice is proved by the process of reformatting, for example, the Ukrainian strategic culture with an anti-Russian trend. Application. Political science – in order to continue the debate on strategic culture, the further development of the theory in the light of modern conditions of the clash of strategic cultures on a global level, and also political practice of compromise to minimize the challenges, risks and threats in international relations at the regional and global levels. Conclusions. Further development of the theory of strategic culture is actualized by the sharp aggravation of the confrontation between national and regional strategic cultures in different geopolitical strategic regions of the planet. This confrontation is caused by two main factors: the presence and strengthening of a number of national strategic cultures and the desire to dominate individual national and regional strategic cultures. In the context of using national strategic cultures as an important tool of political struggle, the development of models for interaction of strategic cultures based on compromise can help to minimize risks in international relations. The level of modern theoretical understanding of the problem does not correspond to the complexity of tasks to ensure national, regional and global security.