Turkey’s EU accession as a politics of deferral: governmentality and the state of exception in European integration and identity construction
Date
2010-05-07T18:52:34Z
Authors
Pullman, Emma
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Abstract
In 2005, the European Union (EU) began accession negotiations with its most controversial candidate to date, Turkey. The process has been, from the outset, sui generis relative to previous and current accessions, and Turkey remains the first candidate without a fixed date for the conclusion of accession negotiations. This thesis explores the problematique of Turkey’s proposed accession, and attempts to understand why its accession has been and will remain controversial and undecided. Turkey’s proposed accession has been, for both opponents and proponents, understood in terms of Europeanness: either Turkey is not European and thus not eligible to join, or is a legitimate candidate due to its very Europeanness, or has the propensity to develop a European identity. This very question frames the very limits and possibility of these negotiations. To properly understand the complexities and implications of Turkey’s EU candidacy from the perspective of European culture and identity, this thesis adopts a post-structuralist theoretical perspective which enables an understanding of fluid and hybrid difference. Turkey’s EU candidacy demonstrates that identity is not only articulated through difference; Turkey occupies a more fluid and dynamic role in the construction of European identity and is variously inside and outside, European and non. Through an examination of Michel Foucault’s governmentality and Carl Schmitt and Georgio Agamben’s exploration of sovereignty and the state of exception, this thesis examines the nexus of exclusion and inclusion, and through an examination of a ‘politics of deferral’, I demonstrate how Turkey may meet all of the EU accession criteria, yet may be never invited to accede to the European Union.
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European Union, EU, European integration, European identity, state of exception, exclusion, culture