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Framing PIGS: patterns of racism and neocolonialism in the Euro crisis

2016; Taylor & Francis; Volume: 50; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1080/0031322x.2015.1128056

1461-7331

Jonas Van Vossole,

Social Policy and Reform Studies

ABSTRACTVan Vossole's article explores the racist framing of the peripheral member states of the European Union, the PIGS (Portugal, Ireland (and/or Italy), Greece and Spain). It demonstrates a strong connection between the processes of racialization and depoliticization, as well as the return of colonial dynamics in the Eurozone. Side-stepping political economy and history, the culturalization of politics perfectly complements the 'post-political' neoliberal hegemony. Political and media discourses reproduce it in both populist and corporate interests. The culturalization of politics reduces the differences between centre and periphery to certain 'cultural characteristics and habits', as reflected in stereotypes of laziness, non-productivity, corruption, wasteful spending and lying. These make it possible to blame the PIGS for the current crisis, legitimizing drastic austerity measures and a loss of sovereignty. The loss of sovereignty shows remarkable similarities with what Kwame Nkrumah defined as neocolonialism: the continuation of colonial power relations through processes of economic dependence, conditional aid and cultural hegemony. While this problematic only resurfaced during the recent Euro crisis, Van Vossole discusses how today's racist discourses and neocolonial politics have their roots in the past, particularly in anti-Irish and anti-Mediterranean racism and in the (semi-)colonial position of the PIGS in the British and Ottoman empires. Besides structural violence against the periphery, a major consequence of this racialization is that it jeopardizes any possibility of further democratic political integration on the basis of a common European identity.KEYWORDS: austeritydepoliticizationEuro crisisneocolonialismneoliberalismperipheryPIGSracialization Notes1 David Theo Goldberg and John Solomos, 'General introduction', in David Theo Goldberg and John Solomos (eds), A Companion to Racial and Ethnic Studies (Oxford and Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishers 2002), 4, 3.2 John Solomos, 'Beyond racism and multiculturalism', Patterns of Prejudice, vol. 32, no. 4, 1998, 45–62.3 Yiannis Mylonas, 'Media and the economic crisis of the EU: the "culturalization" of a systemic crisis and Bild-Zeitung's framing of Greece', TripleC (Communication, Capitalism & Critique): Open Access Journal for a Global Sustainable Information Society, vol. 10, no. 2, 2012, 646–71.4 Luís Capucha, Pedro Estêvão, Alexandre Calado and Ana Rita Capucha, 'The role of stereotyping in public policy legitimation: the case of the pigs label', Comparative Sociology, vol. 13, no. 4, 2014, 482–502.5 Immanuel Wallerstein, 'The itinerary of world-systems analysis; or, how to resist becoming a theory', in Joseph Berger and Morris Zelditch, Jr (eds), New Directions in Contemporary Sociological Theory (Lanham, MD and Oxford: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers 2002), 358–76.6 'Pigs in muck', Financial Times, 31 August 2008.7 Juliane von Reppert-Bismarck, 'Why PIGS can't fly' (the title was changed to 'Why Southern Europe's economies don't compete' in 2015), Newsweek, 28 June 2008; 'Ten years on, beware a porcine plot', The Economist, 5 June 2008.8 Kwame Nkrumah, Neo-Colonialism: The Last Stage of Imperialism (New York: International Publishers 1965).9 Slavoj Žižek, The Ticklish Subject: The Absent Centre of Political Ontology (London: Verso 2000), 198.10 Costis Hadjimichalis, 'Uneven geographical development and socio-spatial justice and solidarity: European regions after the 2009 financial crisis', European Urban and Regional Studies, vol. 18, no. 3, 2011, 254–74.11 Ana Cordeiro Santos, 'Behavioural and experimental economics: are they really transforming economics?', Cambridge Journal of Economics, vol. 35, no. 4, 2011, 705–28.12 Slavoj Žižek, 'A permanent economic emergency', New Left Review, no. 64, July–August 2010, 85–95.13 Hadjimichalis, 'Uneven geographical development and socio-spatial justice and solidarity'.14 Ibid.15 Paul De Grauwe, Crisis in the Eurozone and How to Deal with It, CEPS Policy Brief, no. 204, 15 February 2010.16 Paul Krugman, 'Eurozone problems', 30 January 2012, on Paul Krugman's blog 'The Conscience of a Liberal', available on the New York Times website at http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/01/30/eurozone-problems (viewed on 6 November 2015).17 Hadjimichalis, 'Uneven geographical development and socio-spatial justice and solidarity'.18 Erik Swyngedouw, 'Impossible "sustainability" and the postpolitical condition', in Rob Krueger and David Gibbs (eds), The Sustainable Development Paradox: Urban Political Economy in the United States and Europe (New York and London: Guilford Press 2007), 13–40 (31).19 Wendy Brown, 'Tolerance as a discourse of depoliticization', in Wendy Brown, Regulating Aversion: Tolerance in the Age of Identity and Empire (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press 2008), 1–25.20 Žižek, The Ticklish Subject, 199.21 Mahmood Mamdani, Good Muslim, Bad Muslim: America, the Cold War, and the Roots of Terror (New York: Three Leaves Press 2004).22 Brown, 'Tolerance as a discourse of depoliticization', 20.23 Ibid.24 Ibid.25 Kay Anderson, '"The beast within": race, humanity, and animality', Environment and Planning D: Society and Space, vol. 18, no. 3, 2000, 301–20.26 Barnor Hesse, 'Racialized modernity: an analytics of white mythologies', Ethnic and Racial Studies, vol. 30, no. 4, 2007, 643–63.27 Boaventura de Sousa Santos, Portugal: Ensaio contra a autoflagelação (Lisbon: Almedina 2012).28 Michael Herzfeld, 'The horns of the Mediterraneanist dilemma', American Ethnologist, vol. 11, no. 3, 1984, 439–54.29 David Theo Goldberg, 'Modernity, race, and morality', Cultural Critique, no. 24, Spring 1993, 193–227.30 Vassos Argyrou, Tradition and Modernity in the Mediterranean: The Wedding as Symbolic Struggle (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 2005).31 Herzfeld, 'The horns of the Mediterraneanist dilemma'.32 Jonas Frykman, 'Culturalization of the Mediterranean space', Narodna umjetnost: Croatian Journal of Ethnology and Folklore Research, vol. 36, no. 1, 1999, 283–6.33 John Urry, Consuming Places (London and New York: Routledge 1995).34 Mylonas, 'Media and the economic crisis of the EU', 663.35 Frykman, 'Culturalization of the Mediterranean space'.36 Philomena Essed, Understanding Everyday Racism: An Interdisciplinary Study (Newbury Park, CA, London and New Delhi: Sage Publications 1991).37 Herzfeld, 'The horns of the Mediterraneanist dilemma'.38 Milena Lopreite, 'The Portugal situation during the financial crisis', Advances in Management and Applied Economics, vol. 1, no. 1, 2011, 111–24.39 Liz Curtis, Nothing But the Same Old Story: The Roots of Anti-Irish Racism (Belfast: Sasta 1998); Robbie McVeigh, 'The specificity of Irish racism', Race & Class, vol. 33, no. 4, 1992, 31–45; Ronit Lentin and Robbie McVeigh, 'Irishness and racism: towards an e-reader', Translocations: Migration and Social Change, vol. 1, no. 1, 2006, 22–40.40 Fintan O'Toole, 'Green, white and black: race and Irish identity', in Ronit Lentin (ed.), Emerging Irish Identities: Proceedings of a Seminar, Held in Trinity College Dublin, November 27 1999 (Dublin: Department of Sociology, Trinity College Dublin 2000), 21–7.41 Enrica Capussotti, 'Nordisti contro Sudisti: internal migration and racism in Turin, Italy: 1950s and 1960s', Italian Culture, vol. 28, no. 2, 2010, 121–38 (121–5).42 Ash Amin, 'Xenophobic Europe', openDemocracy, 9 May 2011, available at www.opendemocracy.net/ash-amin/xenophobic-europe (viewed 9 November 2015)43 Kevin Featherstone, 'The Greek crisis', in Costas Lapavitsas (ed.), 'The Greek crisis—politics, economics, ethics: a debate held at the Birkbeck Institute for the Humanities, Birkbeck College, University of London, 5 May 2010′, Journal of Modern Greek Studies, vol. 28, no. 2, 2010, 293–310 (298–301); 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(datablog), 8 December 2011, available on the Guardian website at www.theguardian.com/news/datablog/2011/dec/08/europe-working-hours (viewed on 9 November 2015).55 Bohle, The Crisis of the Eurozone, 7.56 Marta Araújo and Silvia Rodríguez Maeso, 'History textbooks, racism and the critique of Eurocentrism: beyond rectification or compensation', Ethnic and Racial Studies, vol. 35, no. 7, 2012, 1266–86.57 Hadjimichalis, 'Uneven geographical development and socio-spatial justice and solidarity'.58 Brown, 'Tolerance as a discourse of depoliticization'.59 See the timeline originally prepared by Christophe Gouardo and Jean Pisani-Ferry and updated by Breughel in 'Euro crisis' (blog) 16 September 2015, available on the Breughel website at http://bruegel.org/2015/09/euro-crisis (viewed 9 November 2015).60 Bohle, The Crisis of the Eurozone, 1.61 Slavoj Žižek, The Parallax View (Cambridge, MA and London: MIT Press 2009).62 Niek Stolker, 'Geert weet ook wel dat de gulden niet terugkomt. Hij wil alleen stemmen winnen', HP/De Tijd, 11 November 2011, available on the HP/De Tijd website at www.hpdetijd.nl/2011-11-11/geert-weet-ook-dat-de-gulden-niet-terugkomt-hij-wil-alleen-stemm/ (viewed 9 November 2015).63 Mustafa Kutlay, 'Stopping "blame game", revealing the Euro zone's design faults: complex interdependence within the nation-state framework', Uluslararasi Hukuk ve Politika, vol. 7, no. 27, 2011, 87–111.64 Quoted in André Cabrita Mendes, 'Portas: "É preciso que se saiba que há um país no sul cuja gente é trabalhadora"', 21 April 2014, available on Dinheiro Vivo website at www.dinheirovivo.pt/economia/portas-e-preciso-que-se-saiba-que-ha-um-pais-no-sul-cuja-gente-e-trabalhadora (viewed 9 November 2015).65 Teun A. van Dijk, 'Mediating racism: the role of the media in the reproduction of racism', in Ruth Wodak (ed.), Language, Power and Ideology: Studies in Political Discourse (Amsterdam and Philadelphia: John Benjamins 1989), 199–226.66 Mylonas, 'Media and the economic crisis of the EU'.67 Liaris and Mylonas, 'What really went wrong in Greece?'.68 Oliver Santen, 'Ohne Schmiergeld läuft in Griechenland fast gar nichts mehr', Bild­-Zeitung, 31 January 2010, available on the Bild website at www.bild.de/politik/wirtschaft/griechenland/ohne-schmiergeld-laeuft-fast-gar-nichts-mehr-11312616.bild.html (viewed on 10 November 2015).69 Bohle, The Crisis of the Eurozone, 1.70 Christos Katsetos, 'Betrüger in der Eurofamilie' (blog), 24 February 2010, available on the Akritas Macedonian blog website at http://modern-macedonian-history.blogspot.co.uk/2010/02/betruger-in-der-euro-familie.html (viewed 10 November 2015).71 Guardian, 5 November 2011, quoted in John Weeks, 'Breaking news: the working class caused Italian crisis' (blog), Social Europe Journal, 10 November 2011, available at www.socialeurope.eu/2011/11/breaking-news-the-working-class-caused-the-italian-crisis (viewed 10 November 2015).72 Lisa O'Carroll, 'Ireland hopes fifth bailout will end the years of corruption and greed', Guardian, 1 April 2011.73 Patrick Soetens, 'Ieren ontvankelijker voor schuld en boete dan Grieken', De Tijd, 14 February 2012.74 Raphael Minder, 'Hard times for a small (and fuzzy) group of Europeans', New York Times, 29 November 2013.75 Jim Yardley, 'Spain, land of 10 p.m. dinners, asks if it's time to reset clock', New York Times, 18 February 2014.76 Boaventura Sousa Santos, 'Para além do Pensamento Abissal: Das linhas globais a uma ecologia de saberes', Revista crítica de ciencias sociais, no. 78, October 2007, 3–46.77 Andrea Brighenti, 'Visibility: a category for the social sciences', Current Sociology, vol. 55, no. 3, 2007, 323–42.78 Santos, 'Para além do Pensamento Abissal'.79 Ibid.80 Boaventura de Sousa Santos, 'O desenvolvimento do subdesenvolvimento', 20 October 2011, available on the Visão website at http://visao.sapo.pt/o-desenvolvimento-do-subdesenvolvimento=f628598 (viewed 11 November 2015).81 Douzinas and Papaconstantinou, 'Greece is standing up to EU neocolonialism'.82 Santos, 'Para além do Pensamento Abissal'.83 Nkrumah, Neo-Colonialism.84 John Weeks, 'Euro crises and euro scams: trade not debt and deficits tell the tale', Review of Political Economy, vol. 26, no. 2, 2014, 171–89.85 Ana Rute Silva, 'Holanda recebeu mais de 80% do investimento directo de Portugal', Público, 9 October 2011, available on the Público website at www.publico.pt/economia/noticia/holanda-recebeu-mais-de-80-do-investimento-directo-de-portugal-1515627 (viewed 11 November 2015).86 Hadjimichalis, 'Uneven geographical development and socio-spatial justice and solidarity'.87 Lapavitsas, in Lapavitsas (ed.), 'The Greek crisis—politics, economics, ethics'.88 Douzinas and Papaconstantinou, 'Greece is standing up to EU neocolonialism'.89 Bohle, The Crisis of the Eurozone, 5.90 Stathis Kouvelakis, 'The Greek crisis', in Lapavitsas (ed.), 'The Greek crisis—politics, economics, ethics', 303–6.91 'Germany plans for what comes next', Financial Times, 13 July 2010; Bohle, The Crisis of the Eurozone, 6.92 Bohle, The Crisis of the Eurozone, 6.93 Douzinas and Papaconstantinou, 'Greece is standing up to EU neocolonialism'.94 Étienne Balibar, 'The Greek crisis', in Lapavitsas (ed.), 'The Greek crisis—politics, economics, ethics', 306–9.95 Nkrumah, Neo-Colonialism, 1.96 Santos, Portugal.97 Dauril Alden, review of S. Sideri, Trade and Power (1970) and H. E. S. Fisher, The Portugal Trade (1971), Journal of Economic History, vol. 31, no. 4, 1971, 990–3.98 Santos, Portugal.99 Ibid.100 Nkrumah, Neo-Colonialism.101 Goldberg, 'Modernity, race, and morality'.102 De Grauwe, Crisis in the Eurozone and How to Deal with It.Additional informationNotes on contributorsJonas Van VossoleJonas Van Vossole is a Ph.D. candidate at the Centre of Social Studies, an Associated Laboratory of the University of Coimbra, and at the Department of Political Science of the University of Ghent. His dissertation is on the influence of the Euro crisis on democratic legitimacy in Southern Europe, particularly in Portugal. His main research interests are the study of democracy, social movements, social protests and critical political science and political economy. He is an associate researcher for Ghent Association for Studies on Parties and Representation (GASPAR) and a member of the European Consortium for Political Research (ECPR) standing groups on South European Politics and on Democratic Innovations.