This paper probes the relationship between nationalism and belonging. In the context of the enact... more This paper probes the relationship between nationalism and belonging. In the context of the enactment of the 'Nation-State Law' in Israel, it addresses a twofold question: how do members of the Druze community articulate the minority group's sense of belonging to the national community, and what do their constructions of belonging suggest about how Druze might shape and secure their belonging in the Jewish nationalist project? Our analytical approach draws on theoretical accounts of the politics of belonging and nationalist projects centred on culture and political values; civic identifications and attachments; and the racialized positioning of social groups. The analysis of 18 semi-structured interviews evoked four metaphors through which we elaborate the impact of the Nation-State Law on Druze belonging and explore the implications for Druze engagement with this Jewish nationalist project. We envision the possibility of Druze pursuing a transversal intersectional political project of belonging as non-Jews in Israel.
The paper investigates changes to Copenhagen's landscape of commemoration concerning its former c... more The paper investigates changes to Copenhagen's landscape of commemoration concerning its former colony, the Danish West Indies (DWI), prompted by the 2017 centennial anniversary of the Islands' sale to the US. It argues that Denmark, like other European nations, navigates a postcolonial identity crisis and that the landscape of commemoration plays a significant role within it. The paper advances our understanding of postcolonial Europe's identity crisis not only by shedding light on the under-explored case of Denmark, but also by emphasizing the role of the landscape of commemoration in this crisis. In addition to demonstrating how landscapes function as 'arenas' for negotiating expressions of hegemonic identity and territorial claims, it argues that the commemorative landscape is pivotal in tackling the construction of 'Europe' as a detached, self-made entity rather than a space (re)produced through connections with other (ed) places and people. It underscores that Europe's allegedly monochromatic historical fabric is woven from diverse global threads. Remembering Europe with the people and regions vital to its (re)production rewrites them into European history and relocates detached Europe (with)in the world.
As a way to address the current postcolonial moment, characteristic of ongoing relations of resou... more As a way to address the current postcolonial moment, characteristic of ongoing relations of resource extraction and border control, we turn to the metaphor of the plantation, offering an interpretation of Katherine McKittrick’s idea of plantation logics. Plantation museums, centered on former planters’ mansions (the ‘big house’) in the U.S., are important vehicles for narrating the historical period of slavery. However, such historical sites have traditionally steered away from addressing the role of enslavement in the production of the space of the big house. This erasure of the enslaved obscures the spatial and social relationality of the plantation. While continental Europe lacks these plantation houses and thus museums, it is no less important for the former colonial states in Europe to narrate their own historical involvement in slavery and, equally important, its contemporary legacies. In both contexts, we see a selective remembering of the past that is grounded in a spatial and temporal distancing of the plantation that renders the centrality of slavery to the production and reproduction of Europe invisible. In this article, we use the metaphor of the big house to illustrate how the logic of the plantation is replicated across scales of time and space. We argue that a failure to recognize the ongoing reality of the plantation logic as embodied by the European big house enables its reproduction, including in the environmental catastrophe of the Plantationocence. A consideration of Maroon geographies explores narrations of the plantation that point to a way forward to alternative futures.
Following the removal of various monuments commemorating colonial figures, this paper introduces ... more Following the removal of various monuments commemorating colonial figures, this paper introduces the Empty Plinth as epitomizing postcolonial Europe's identity crisis. As Europe negotiates new discursive foundations for an increasingly multicultural society, this paper argues for a remembering of Europe through a materialization of Black narratives in the European memoryscape for their potential to: 1) tackle white ignorance and exclusionary nativism by uncovering Europe's contingency upon other(ed) geographies, 2) contribute to creating/fostering a Black sense of place in European cities, and 3) addressing Europe's identity crisis and lay new conceptual foundations for a hybrid and inclusive "Europe."
• An increasing number of plantation museums are transitioning away from whitewashing slavery to ... more • An increasing number of plantation museums are transitioning away from whitewashing slavery to interpreting it. • Transitioning plantation museums' access to a traditional visitor base provides educational opportunities.
This paper argues that an appreciation of the effects of 'southering', or the identity discourse ... more This paper argues that an appreciation of the effects of 'southering', or the identity discourse of internal orientalism in the U.S., is key to understanding the historical interpretation provided at plantation museums and the challenges associated with narrative transformation at these heritage sites. An analysis of two plantation museums in Louisiana shows that efforts to transform the whitewashed narratives that fail to account for the psychogeography of southering (as reflected in the 'Southern' deep story) might prove counterproductive. One solution to this problem is the spatial contextualisation of plantation slavery as not only a regional but also a national and global institution-a contextualisation that is both historically accurate and also has the potential to disarm 'Southern' defensiveness through its explicit acknowledgement of the 'guilt' and participation of whites in the system of slavery throughout the U.S. (and even globally). What we ultimately argue for is the need to transcend southering, a binary discourse that creates a moral landscape of uneven racism (racist 'South'/enlightened 'North') while at the same time privileging the agency of whites and occluding African American history and agency.
This paper probes the relationship between nationalism and belonging. In the context of the enact... more This paper probes the relationship between nationalism and belonging. In the context of the enactment of the 'Nation-State Law' in Israel, it addresses a twofold question: how do members of the Druze community articulate the minority group's sense of belonging to the national community, and what do their constructions of belonging suggest about how Druze might shape and secure their belonging in the Jewish nationalist project? Our analytical approach draws on theoretical accounts of the politics of belonging and nationalist projects centred on culture and political values; civic identifications and attachments; and the racialized positioning of social groups. The analysis of 18 semi-structured interviews evoked four metaphors through which we elaborate the impact of the Nation-State Law on Druze belonging and explore the implications for Druze engagement with this Jewish nationalist project. We envision the possibility of Druze pursuing a transversal intersectional political project of belonging as non-Jews in Israel.
The paper investigates changes to Copenhagen's landscape of commemoration concerning its former c... more The paper investigates changes to Copenhagen's landscape of commemoration concerning its former colony, the Danish West Indies (DWI), prompted by the 2017 centennial anniversary of the Islands' sale to the US. It argues that Denmark, like other European nations, navigates a postcolonial identity crisis and that the landscape of commemoration plays a significant role within it. The paper advances our understanding of postcolonial Europe's identity crisis not only by shedding light on the under-explored case of Denmark, but also by emphasizing the role of the landscape of commemoration in this crisis. In addition to demonstrating how landscapes function as 'arenas' for negotiating expressions of hegemonic identity and territorial claims, it argues that the commemorative landscape is pivotal in tackling the construction of 'Europe' as a detached, self-made entity rather than a space (re)produced through connections with other (ed) places and people. It underscores that Europe's allegedly monochromatic historical fabric is woven from diverse global threads. Remembering Europe with the people and regions vital to its (re)production rewrites them into European history and relocates detached Europe (with)in the world.
As a way to address the current postcolonial moment, characteristic of ongoing relations of resou... more As a way to address the current postcolonial moment, characteristic of ongoing relations of resource extraction and border control, we turn to the metaphor of the plantation, offering an interpretation of Katherine McKittrick’s idea of plantation logics. Plantation museums, centered on former planters’ mansions (the ‘big house’) in the U.S., are important vehicles for narrating the historical period of slavery. However, such historical sites have traditionally steered away from addressing the role of enslavement in the production of the space of the big house. This erasure of the enslaved obscures the spatial and social relationality of the plantation. While continental Europe lacks these plantation houses and thus museums, it is no less important for the former colonial states in Europe to narrate their own historical involvement in slavery and, equally important, its contemporary legacies. In both contexts, we see a selective remembering of the past that is grounded in a spatial and temporal distancing of the plantation that renders the centrality of slavery to the production and reproduction of Europe invisible. In this article, we use the metaphor of the big house to illustrate how the logic of the plantation is replicated across scales of time and space. We argue that a failure to recognize the ongoing reality of the plantation logic as embodied by the European big house enables its reproduction, including in the environmental catastrophe of the Plantationocence. A consideration of Maroon geographies explores narrations of the plantation that point to a way forward to alternative futures.
Following the removal of various monuments commemorating colonial figures, this paper introduces ... more Following the removal of various monuments commemorating colonial figures, this paper introduces the Empty Plinth as epitomizing postcolonial Europe's identity crisis. As Europe negotiates new discursive foundations for an increasingly multicultural society, this paper argues for a remembering of Europe through a materialization of Black narratives in the European memoryscape for their potential to: 1) tackle white ignorance and exclusionary nativism by uncovering Europe's contingency upon other(ed) geographies, 2) contribute to creating/fostering a Black sense of place in European cities, and 3) addressing Europe's identity crisis and lay new conceptual foundations for a hybrid and inclusive "Europe."
• An increasing number of plantation museums are transitioning away from whitewashing slavery to ... more • An increasing number of plantation museums are transitioning away from whitewashing slavery to interpreting it. • Transitioning plantation museums' access to a traditional visitor base provides educational opportunities.
This paper argues that an appreciation of the effects of 'southering', or the identity discourse ... more This paper argues that an appreciation of the effects of 'southering', or the identity discourse of internal orientalism in the U.S., is key to understanding the historical interpretation provided at plantation museums and the challenges associated with narrative transformation at these heritage sites. An analysis of two plantation museums in Louisiana shows that efforts to transform the whitewashed narratives that fail to account for the psychogeography of southering (as reflected in the 'Southern' deep story) might prove counterproductive. One solution to this problem is the spatial contextualisation of plantation slavery as not only a regional but also a national and global institution-a contextualisation that is both historically accurate and also has the potential to disarm 'Southern' defensiveness through its explicit acknowledgement of the 'guilt' and participation of whites in the system of slavery throughout the U.S. (and even globally). What we ultimately argue for is the need to transcend southering, a binary discourse that creates a moral landscape of uneven racism (racist 'South'/enlightened 'North') while at the same time privileging the agency of whites and occluding African American history and agency.
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Papers by Doron Eldar