Europe's eastern expansion and the reinscription of otherness in East-Central Europe

Abstract

This article examines how EU and NATO enlargement is framed by the dichotomy of Europe versus Eastern Europe, and how the enlargement process simultaneously transforms that dichotomy. I argue that the double enlargement is underpinned by a broadly orientalist discourse that assumes essential difference between Europe and Eastern Europe and frames difference from Western Europe as a distance from and a lack of Europeanness. I suggest that in order to expose and undercut this reinscription of otherness, research on East-Central Europe should engage with postcolonial theory in a more direct and sustained fashion.

Food Self-Provisioning in Czechia: Beyond Coping Strategy of the Poor: A Response to Alber and Kohler’s ‘Informal Food Production in the Enlarged European Union’ (2008)

“…It is part and parcel of a broadly orientalist discourse that assumes an essential difference between Europe and Eastern (i.e. post-socialist) Europe (Kuus 2004). From this perspective European post-socialist societies are perceived as traditional societies that are lagging behind the developed West.…”

Information technology offshoring in India: a postcolonial perspective

“…Although postcolonial theory has its roots in the humanities and literary studies where it is seen as a macro theory dealing with historical conditions of domination-subjugation and cultural identity, over the past decade management scholars have successfully demonstrated how it can be usefully applied as a nuanced analytical lens at the organizational level Frenkel, 2008;Ozkazanc-Pan, 2008). In several business and management disciplines, researchers have approached their fieldwork with postcolonial sensibilities, applying strands of postcolonial theory to understand experiences within and across organizations (see Frenkel & Shenhav, 2003;Cohen & El-Sawad, 2007;Mir & Mir, 2009 Kuus, 2004). The theory grounds studies "in the historical context of colonialism, as well as in the political context of contemporary problems of globalization" (Brydon, 2000, p1-2).…”

“Coloniality of power” in East Central Europe: external penetration as internal force in post-socialist Hungarian politics

“…, Kuus (2004), Klumbyte (2009), Zarycki (2009) or Arfire (2011) looked at the entanglement of processes of dependent integration with internalizations of symbolic hierarchies. Symbolic frameworks of inferiority imposed in the process of integration in European modernity, and particularly the Eastern enlargement of the European Union, as well as the question of an imperial character of the European Union-the target of integration ambitions-have been scrutinized by a variety of authors (Wolff 1994;Bakić-Hayden 1995;Petrović 2008;Todorova 2009;Böröcz and Sarkar 2005;Böröcz 2006;Böröcz and Kovács 2001;Zielonka 2006;or Behr and Stivachtis 2015).…”