Mezzogiorno without the mafia: Modern-day meridionalisti and the making of a ‘space of backwardness’ in eastern Germany

UNCG Author/Contributor (non-UNCG co-authors, if there are any, appear on document)
Corey Johnson, Assistant Professor (Creator)
Institution
The University of North Carolina at Greensboro (UNCG )
Web Site: http://library.uncg.edu/

Abstract: Practices of spatial representation can be revealing indicators of particular brands of nationalized discourse. In this article, the prevalent use of a comparison between eastern Germany and the Italian Mezzogiorno by a specific set of German elites is examined. Anxieties about Germany's place in the European and global economies are accompanied by a spatial vocabulary that uploads these anxieties onto the ongoing project of German unification. Eastern Germany, painted as a homogenized ‘space of backwardness,’ is thereby made out as a key factor inhibiting competitiveness and modernization of the economy.

Additional Information

Publication
Language: English
Date: 2011
Keywords
Germany, unification, critical geopolitics, Mezzogiorno, nationalism

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