Read more
List of contents
Introduction
Section One: The Clock, the Compass and the Typewriter
Chapter One: Belongings We Chose and Those that We do Not
Chapter Two: Europe Becoming an Institution
Chapter Three: Turkey: Reflections on Becoming (Fast Version)
Section Two: Recognitions and Realisms
Chapter Four: Yes, Still Talking About Accession
Chapter Five: Your Comment Is Not Relevant
Chapter Six: For Turkish Cypriots, the Summit will be Web-Streamed
Section Three: Refugees and Crises
Chapter Seven: They’re Speaking Like My President
Chapter Eight: Can We Trust Turkey? The Czechs in the Making of the EU-Turkey Refugee Deal
Coda: Notes on Stillness, Acceleration and Sovereignty
Index
About the author
Lucia Najslova is Lecturer in European Politics at Charles University, Prague, Czech Republic.
Summary
Turkey’s EU accession talks, which began in 2005, were intended to strengthen Turkey’s democracy and the EU’s ability to embrace difference. Instead, we have seen repeated questioning of Turkey’s ‘Europeanness’ and mutual exploitation of the other’s weaknesses. Offering a unique analysis of conversations in and about Turkey and the EU, Lucia Najšlová adopts an interdisciplinary ethnographic lens, taking the reader through misunderstandings in the diplomatic framework and into everyday interactions between various protagonists of the relationship.
Questions of belonging and recognition underpin the analysis and connect various research sites, including the 2016 refugee deal and the status of Turkish Cypriots. Najšlová delves into the temporal dimensions of this dynamic, such as questions surrounding Turkish modernity and nation-building, and asks whether there is such a thing as good timing for democracy and what would happen if the diplomatic framework of Turkey-EU relations started moving faster.
Foreword
Explores the tumultuous relationship between the European Union and Turkey through an ethnographic lens.
Additional text
Najslova’s lively attention to detail systematically uncovers inconsistencies in dominant assumptions of fixed entities, interests and institutions. Focusing on core themes of community, temporality and difference, she interrupts dominant narratives and shows how understandings of belonging are constructed through and, crucially, alongside structures of hierarchy.
