Collusion as boundary (un-)making on the EU’s Eastern border

Organised by

• Robert Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies
• Department of Political and Social Sciences
• GGP: Global Governance Programme

Does the current normative rift between the EU and Poland as part of the EU reveal a fundamental disagreement that undermines European integration? The paper probes this question by developing the concept of collusion that problematises dichotomic theorisation of boundary work as either integrative or conflictual. Xymena Kurowska draws on a psychoanalytical definition of collusion as a game of mutual self-deception where an actor establishes an identity for herself by achieving a particular identity for the other. Collusion shows a contextually specific dialectic of difference and commonality as core to politically effective boundary work. Empirically, the paper considers the management of the EU’s Eastern border, in particular regarding migration flows, as an illustration of a collusive alliance based on reciprocal repudiations. Here, the controversies over Poland as ‘a normative threat’ to the declared liberal value system of the EU re-energise identities that depend upon each other within the EU project.