The Library
Public moods, emerging political subjectivities, and ontological security: the German response to the so-called migration crisis
Tools
Gellwitzki, Carlos Nicolai Lucas (2023) Public moods, emerging political subjectivities, and ontological security: the German response to the so-called migration crisis. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.
PDF
WRAP_Theses_Gellwitzki_2023.pdf - Unspecified Version Embargoed item. Restricted access to Repository staff only until 28 August 2025. Contact author directly, specifying your specific needs. - Requires a PDF viewer. Download (3905Kb) |
Official URL: http://webcat.warwick.ac.uk/record=b3978682~S1
Abstract
The German political and popular responses to the so-called migration crisis in 2015 and 2016 can
be quite puzzling as they went from initial ambivalence to a euphoric “border opening” to a
racialised securitisation of migration within a mere six months. This thesis explores the reasons
and motivations behind this volatility, inconsistency, and fluctuation in responses, arguing that the
affective intricacies of these dynamics exceed existing frameworks’ explanatory power. Therefore,
this thesis further develops the decentred approach to ontological security by drawing on the work
of Martin Heidegger and Melanie Klein to conceptualise public moods and their psycho-political
effects. This move moreover re-conceptualises the ontological security-seeking subject as an
emerging property of the affective environment rather than a pre-existing and self-enclosed actor.
This framework encourages us to look beyond the EU-level responses to the so-called migration
crisis that has drawn much media and academic attention and instead zoom in on four micro�political encounters in Germany that contributed to a change in public mood. Employing a
qualitative discourse analysis, the thesis traces the emergence of political subjectivities in public
discourse in the weeks after the encounters and the psycho-political implications they developed.
The key conclusion is that the changing German responses to the so-called migration crisis are
best understood as emerging political subjectivities’ attempts to manage anxieties about German
self-identity narratives rather than attempts by pre-given and rational actors to politically solve the
“issue” of migration or address the needs of asylum seekers. Peaks in public moods, moreover,
opened windows of political opportunity that allowed radical self-identity and policy changes as
well as the institutionalisation of novel habits, and routines.
Item Type: | Thesis (PhD) | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Subjects: | H Social Sciences > HV Social pathology. Social and public welfare | ||||
Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH): | Refugees -- Germany, Refugees -- Germany -- Public opinion, Immigrants -- Germany -- Public opinion, Refugees -- Government policy -- Germany, Germany -- Emigration and immigration -- Government policy, Ontology -- Political aspects, Emigration and immigration -- Political aspects -- Germany | ||||
Official Date: | July 2023 | ||||
Dates: |
|
||||
Institution: | University of Warwick | ||||
Theses Department: | Department of Politics and International Studies | ||||
Thesis Type: | PhD | ||||
Publication Status: | Unpublished | ||||
Supervisor(s)/Advisor: | Browning, Christopher S.,1974- ; Fagan, Madeleine | ||||
Sponsors: | University of Warwick. Department of Politics and International Studies | ||||
Extent: | x, 254 pages : illustrations | ||||
Language: | eng |
Request changes or add full text files to a record
Repository staff actions (login required)
View Item |