CfP: The “We” in Central and Eastern Europe. Freiburg, 30.09.2026

The “We” is a commitment. Attributions and appropriations of belonging play a central role in the creation of community – they serve as markers of (self-)assurance, facilitating internal identification but also external demarcation. This community building effect has an inherent explosiveness: it is capable of emphasizing what ‘we’ have in common (Scheer 2022), but this demonstrative attitude also harbours populist potential. Initially broad and vague in conceptual terms, we therefore pay particular attention to communities, when they are called upon: war and crises, but also the need to find orientation after migration and to plan for the future to negotiate belonging(s). As a result, new formations of collective images and mechanisms are constantly emerging, challenging existing concepts.
For instance, with regard to Eastern Europe, the term ‘We’ took on a charged meaning in contrast to ‘They’: Not only is the multi-ethnic region imagined as inferior (Todorova 1997), but its citizens also experience racialised degradations throughout history and due to their (labour) mobility, which highlights inequalities between East and West (Lewicki 2023) and clearly calls into question a European ‘We’-consciousness.
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“We” as a political project
How have political programs and movements shaped the politicization of (ethnic) communities and their identities?