Re/Presenting Europe: Popular Representations of Diversity and Belonging

What, and who, is Europe, in past, present, and future? Scholars and other social groups have wrestled over this question. Past answers have referred to civilisation, the enlightenment, to heroes, nation, and “race.” They often link European identity implicitly with Whiteness. This racialization has sustained inequality, produced social tension, and inspired protests like #BlackLivesMatter. In recent years demands for racial and ethnic equality have gained support throughout Europe. But the term black European is vague and contested. Our project examines processes of racialisation in the Netherlands, and compares them to European and transatlantic understandings of diversity and “race.” Our collaboration between formal knowledge institutions and community organizations will deliver new conceptualisations of ethnicity, “Blackness” and belonging.
To do this we focus on popular culture. This recognizes that music and sports have been a field of success, creativity, joy, self-representation and visibility for Black individuals and communities. Popular culture has been a transatlantic source of resistance to dominant narratives about Europe. Our focus on popular culture disrupts some societal and scholarly assumptions about which aspects of European culture are foundational. Education is a dominant site of identity formation and we examine how it interacts with popular culture. One of the challenges we tackle is how to define popular as opposed to urban or mass culture. As with the contested and constructed terms ‘Black’ and ‘White’ the definition of pop culture will be theorized, conceptualised and tested in the field during the project to produce new paradigms. Showing how diversity has produced compelling cultural products, diverse heroes and rich narratives has transformative power for Dutch and European self-knowledge. Our innovative co-creative methodology has already produced societal impact through collaboration that bridges the “scientific” and “societal” spheres. Our project is grounded in the recognition that both produce knowledge and thus we model inclusivity.