Crisis and Coloniality at Europe's Margins

Abstract

Crisis and Coloniality at Europe's Margins: Creating Exotic Iceland provides a fresh look at the current politics of identity in Europe, using a crisis at the margins of Europe to shed light on the continued embeddedness of coloniality in everyday aspirations and identities. Examining Iceland's response to its collapse into bankruptcy in 2008, the author explores the way in which the country sought to brand itself as an exotic tourist destination. With attention to the nation's aspirations, rooted in the late 19th century, of belonging as part of Europe, rather than being classified with colonized countries, the book examines the engagement with ideas of otherness across and within Europe, as European discourses continue to be based on racialized ideas of 'civilized' people. With its focus on coloniality at a time of crisis, this volume contributes to our understanding of how racism endures in the present and the significance of nationalistic sentiments in a world of precariousness. Anchored in part in personal narrative, this critical analysis of coloniality, racism, whiteness and national identities will appeal to scholars across the social sciences with interests in national identity-making, European politics and race in a world characterized by crisis. Two women very important inmy life passed away while I was completing this book: Ásta Jónsdóttir, my grandmother, and Helen K. Henderson, one of my mentors during my PhD studies. They had strength, humor and an ability to have strong positive and inspiring effects on those around them -including me. Contents Acknowledgments ix List of figures xi PART I Before the crash 15

Crisis and Belonging: Protest Voices and Empathic Solidarity in Post-Economic Collapse Iceland

“…To this end, successful male entrepreneurs were often colloquially referred to as "Business Vikings" (útrásarvíkingar) and celebrated for raising Iceland's international profile (Loftsdóttir 2015). Therefore, while the connection between individual Icelanders and the nation-state slowly shifted, reference to the national body (þjóðin) remained strong, providing a sense of ontological security during an unprecedented boom period (Loftsdóttir 2019). With the collapse, however, concerns over the role of the nation-state quickly surfaced, as politicians sought to attend to the collapse away from public view while at the same time strongly suggesting that crash was to be blamed on the dynamics of globalized finance (Pálsson and Durrenberger 2015).…”

“…For many, the crash has been accompanied by a feeling that domestic and foreign "vultures" are trying to exploit Iceland's vulnerable position in the aftermath of a serious economic crisis (Loftsdóttir 2014a, p. 176). Accordingly, new relationships between the local and the global have continued to form (Bergmann 2017;Loftsdóttir 2019). Indeed, while Iceland's prior success as an emerging leader in international banking was celebrated based on the small size of the nation, a focus on "smallness" afterwards has revolved around a profound sense of vulnerability amid increased global economic volatility (Loftsdóttir 2014a, pp.…”

“…As students of the crisis concept highlight, declarations of crisis often produce eschatological ruptures in experience, leading to existential thought about the future (Knight and Stewart 2016;Roitman 2014). In Iceland, the economic downturn that followed the collapse of the country's three largest commercial banks in 2008 resulted in a concerted effort to defend and define the nation (Loftsdóttir 2019). Indeed, collective action pursued by an aggrieved public sought to demonstrate against the harm that had resulted from the government's experiment with neoliberal economic policy since the early 1990s.…”

“…In pursuing this argument, I combine the work of two Icelandic writers to understand how such "alter-geopolitical" responses (Koopman 2011) to crisis are being effected through everyday protest actions. This includes the work of anthropologist Kristín Loftsdóttir (2019, 2014a on gender, identity, and postcolonialism in relation to crisis, and sociologist Bernburg (2019Bernburg ( , 2015Bernburg ( , 2016 work on collective action and the building of affective solidarities on the protest site. Bringing this literature together, I suggest the emotional entanglements of Icelanders' identity are being used to create a sense of (inter-)national empathic solidarity amid economic vulnerability through the "mobilization of .…”

Snertifletir. Andlit úr gifsi og samtenging heimsins

“…108 en á sama tíma var staða Íslands veik í alþjóðasamfélaginu og Íslendingum sem heild gjarnan lýst sem á mörkum siðmenningar, eins og sjá má endurspeglast í áhyggjum íslenskra menntamanna undir lok aldarinnar af alþjóðlegri stöðu Íslands. 109 Leiðangursmönnunum sjálfum fannst einnig ekki alltaf mikið koma til íslensks samfélags og í bók sem síðar var gefin út um leiðangurinn er Reykjavík lýst sem lítilfjörlegri og sorglegri en Íslendingum sem daufum, atkvaeðalitlum en þó vinalegum. 110 Brjóstmyndirnar af Íslendingum vekja einnig upp spurningar um ólíka félagslega stöðu þeirra einstaklinga sem gifsmótin voru tekin af.…”