Identity discourses on East-West borders in Europe: an introduction

Meinhof, Ulrike H., Armbruster, Heidi and Rollo, Craig (2002) Identity discourses on East-West borders in Europe: an introduction. In, Meinhof, Ulrike H. (ed.) Living (with) Borders: Identity Discourses on East-West Borders in Europe. (Border Regions series) Aldershot, England. Ashgate Publishing, pp. 1-14.

Abstract

Many nation states in Europe have undergone dramatic social and political upheaval with the construction of new or the redefinition of existing national borders. This fascinating book focuses on the complex cultural identities of people who live in communities that straddle the border that stretches from the Adriatic to the Baltic Sea. The macro world of politics – the outcome of the Second World War, the collapse of the Soviet Union and of Yugoslavia – imposed major social, political and economic changes for each of three generations of people currently living in these communities.
A consortium of researchers from the countries in question conducted fieldwork and interviews with members of such three-generation families. All used identical and innovative methods of research and data evaluation. The results unearth an astounding wealth of data relating to people’s everyday experiences, their memories of the past, and their understanding of and feelings about ‘the others’ across the border. Discourse analytical methods evaluate these stories to demonstrate the complex and often self-contradictory ways in which people construct multiple identities through their ways of talking and narrating themselves.

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