Europe, mobilities and racialization

The research project Creating Europe through Racialized Mobilities has launched a new website. Kristín Loftsdóttir, professor of anthropology at the University of Iceland, leads the project funded by the Icelandic Research Fund, but both Icelandic and international scholars participate in the project. 

The team studies mobilities in Europe and how it associates with identity and unequal division. Recognizing mobility as strongly differentiated along lines of class, race, and gender, it draws on interdisciplinary theories and perspectives from anthropology, decolonial and postcolonial theories. 

"The idea of Europe has been formed by demarcation from others where racism has played a big part for a long time, but also different kinds of inner division and hierarchy. Some individuals and geographical parts of Europe are considered to stand for the true Europeans, while some parts are perceived as "less developed" or somehow "failed"," says Kristín. 

The key research questions address what interlinked mobilities say about the creation of particular European subjects as racialized subjects, and how mobilities at Europe’s margins can be used to explore the idea of Europe. The research theoretical orientation can be simplified into two interlinked goals:

• Mobility and Europe from the margins How does mobility at Europe’s margins work toward generating understandings of “Europe”?
• Racialization of mobility within and across Europe: How do racialization, gender, and class intersect in the life of mobile subjects in and across Europe?

Emphasis is placed on the importance of examining mobility using a critical perspective in light of the global development and changes that have occurred recently. 

Further information on the research project can be found on the CERM website.