This NIAS Theme Group brings together scholars from different disciplines to explore practices of (de)familiarization – constructing or questioning the ‘familiar’ and the ‘common’.
About the Project
The ‘common’ and the ‘familiar’ are omnipresent in European political discourse – from populist-nativist notions of ‘a common sense Europe’ to the ongoing debates about Europe’s ‘cultural identity’. Meanwhile, ‘strangeness’ is also mobilized across the political spectrum both as a negative attribute (as opposed to normalcy) and as a positive marker of authenticity (versus ‘mainstream’ or ‘establishment’). Our interdisciplinary project will investigate these and other practices of (de)familiarization – constructing or questioning the ‘familiar’ and the ‘common’ – by bringing together quantitative and qualitative analyses of both political discourses and politically engaged forms of cultural production.