European borders and identity from the new materialist approach

Abstract

The article deals with the concept of “new materialism“ and tries to explain “how discourses come to matter” and “how matter comes to discourses” [Barad 2003, 2007]. Borders and border regions are particularly revealing places for social research, especially in the present era of growing globalization, growth of the EU and mass immigration. Two opposite, reciprocal processes are open for investigation on the European territory: disappearance and strengthening of borders. Analyses of the Derridian concept of “unconditional hospitality” and the new materialism discourse will provide a possibility to describe identity deconstruction. Jacques Derrida analyzed the limits of the contemporary socialpolitical concepts that have challenged European existence in the recent years. His political philosophy concentrates on what happens when people, excluded from any system of politics or law, present themselves and ask for refuge or justice. After the long years of “deterritorialization”, today we observe such tendency as the process of re-territorialization. The author examines the public European discourse on religion, civilization and race belonging as a mark of European identity deconstruction.