Overview

The Routledge Handbook of Peripheries in European Studies critically and systematically explores peripheries – in their various notions, definitions, and possibilities – within the European sphere. Variously considered, peripheries reveal common asymmetries and constraints, shed light on combinations and intersections of well-established distinctions and structures, and yet also offer places of resilience, creativity, and innovation to challenge the status quo. As such, peripheries offer revealing perspectives to understand the changing spatial, political, and cultural landscapes of Europe as well as a crucial object of study in their own right, giving weight to persons, processes, and places who seem not to matter, yet demand a reconsideration of the history and politics of Europe. Using case studies and organized around the exploration of four types of peripheries – geographic, structural, socio-political, and epistemic – this multi- and interdisciplinary handbook shows Europe constructed, deconstructed, and reconstructed through the very processes of peripheralization and centralization that it explores. The Routledge Handbook of Peripheries in European Studies is a key reference for scholars and students of European studies and culture, European politics as well as the broader social sciences, humanities, and law.

Full Product Details

9781032873985

Table of Contents

Reviews

“By centring on peripheries, the essays in this handbook draw attention to their shifting, ambiguous, and plural nature, emphasise the importance of cultural distinctions as well as economic or political asymmetries in defining their positions, and expand the scope of European studies beyond the European land mass to include geographically distinct sites that are defined as peripheral solely because of their relationship to Europe. With its productive typology distinguishing between spatial, structural, sociopolitical and epistemic peripheries, this volume will be both an extraordinarily useful resource and an inspiration to further research.” Wendy Bracewell, Emeritus Professor, School of Slavonic and East European Studies, University College London, UK “It is only through Europe’s material and symbolic peripheries that we can begin to understand—and, ultimately, unsettle – ‘Europe’ as a coherent cultural, racial, and even geographic referent. This task is especially urgent at a time of increasingly fortified borders and virulent xenophobic nationalisms. Drawing on diverse theoretical traditions and methodological approaches, the chapters in this volume analyze the ‘periphery’ as a spatial referent, a relational process, a structural position, an embodied subjectivity, and an epistemological standpoint. This handbook should be essential reading for scholars in European studies, post/decolonial studies, and critical migration and border studies.” Camilla Hawthorne, Associate Professor of Sociology, Critical Race and Ethnic Studies, University of California, Santa Cruz, USA “This groundbreaking multidisciplinary handbook brings into conversation a territorial configuration – Europe – and the productive concept of peripheralization – two indispensable frameworks with which to better understand the uncertain and unpredictable character of 21st century geopolitics.” Dominic Thomas, Letessier Professor of European Languages and Transcultural Studies, University of California, Los Angeles, USA

“By centring on peripheries, the essays in this handbook draw attention to their shifting, ambiguous, and plural nature, emphasise the importance of cultural distinctions as well as economic or political asymmetries in defining their positions, and expand the scope of European studies beyond the European land mass to include geographically distinct sites that are defined as peripheral solely because of their relationship to Europe. With its productive typology distinguishing between spatial, structural, sociopolitical and epistemic peripheries, this volume will be both an extraordinarily useful resource and an inspiration to further research.” Wendy Bracewell, Emeritus Professor, School of Slavonic and East European Studies, University College London, UK “It is only through Europe’s material and symbolic peripheries that we can begin to understand—and, ultimately, unsettle – ‘Europe’ as a coherent cultural, racial, and even geographic referent. This task is especially urgent at a time of increasingly fortified borders and virulent xenophobic nationalisms. Drawing on diverse theoretical traditions and methodological approaches, the chapters in this volume analyze the ‘periphery’ as a spatial referent, a relational process, a structural position, an embodied subjectivity, and an epistemological standpoint. This handbook should be essential reading for scholars in European studies, post/decolonial studies, and critical migration and border studies.” Camilla Hawthorne, Associate Professor of Sociology, Critical Race and Ethnic Studies, University of California, Santa Cruz, USA “This groundbreaking multidisciplinary handbook brings into conversation a territorial configuration – Europe – and the productive concept of peripheralization – two indispensable frameworks with which to better understand the uncertain and unpredictable character of 21st century geopolitics.” Dominic Thomas, Letessier Professor of European Languages and Transcultural Studies, University of California, Los Angeles, USA

“By centring on peripheries, the essays in this handbook draw attention to their shifting, ambiguous, and plural nature, emphasise the importance of cultural distinctions as well as economic or political asymmetries in defining their positions, and expand the scope of European studies beyond the European land mass to include geographically distinct sites that are defined as peripheral solely because of their relationship to Europe. With its productive typology distinguishing between spatial, structural, sociopolitical and epistemic peripheries, this volume will be both an extraordinarily useful resource and an inspiration to further research.” Wendy Bracewell, Emeritus Professor, School of Slavonic and East European Studies, University College London, UK “It is only through Europe’s material and symbolic peripheries that we can begin to understand – and, ultimately, unsettle – ‘Europe’ as a coherent cultural, racial, and even geographic referent. This task is especially urgent at a time of increasingly fortified borders and virulent xenophobic nationalisms. Drawing on diverse theoretical traditions and methodological approaches, the chapters in this volume analyze the ‘periphery’ as a spatial referent, a relational process, a structural position, an embodied subjectivity, and an epistemological standpoint. This handbook should be essential reading for scholars in European studies, post/decolonial studies, and critical migration and border studies.” Camilla Hawthorne, Associate Professor of Sociology, Critical Race and Ethnic Studies, University of California, Santa Cruz, USA “This groundbreaking multidisciplinary handbook brings into conversation a territorial configuration – Europe – and the productive concept of peripheralization – two indispensable frameworks with which to better understand the uncertain and unpredictable character of 21st century geopolitics.” Dominic Thomas, Letessier Professor of European Languages and Transcultural Studies, University of California, Los Angeles, USA ""In its bold reenvisioning of Europe, this volume breaks methodological ground and assembles cutting-edge empirical knowledge on a perpetually changing continent. Here, the periphery becomes both the canvas and the brush to depict a whole new Europe, a place of staggering geographical, structural, sociopolitical and epistemic multiplicity. A plea for relearning and reconsidering our scholarly perspectives, this is a must-read across multiple fields."" Theodora Dragostinova, author of The Cold War from the Margins

Author Information

Pamela Ballinger is Professor of History and Fred Cuny Chair in the History of Human Rights at the University of Michigan-Ann Arbor, USA. Clemens Sedmak is Professor of Social Ethics and Director of the Nanovic Institute in the Keough School of Global Affairs, University of Notre Dame, USA.

Tab Content 6

Countries Available