CEU Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2013
| Author | Morina, Donjeta |
|---|---|
| Title | The Social Construction of the Roma threat: Strategies for desecuritization |
| Summary | Recently developed by the Copenhagen School, securitization theory focuses on the question “what really makes something a security problem”; as such, it conceptualizes security problems as inter-subjective and socially constructed through speech acts. While this theory has attracted many responses and much criticism, “desecur itizationȁ d;, often presented as its conceptual twin, and considered normatively superior by the Copenhagen School itself, has been less studied. This thesis sets out to narrow this scholarly gap by exploring strategies to desecuritize a deeply securitized minority. This is done in response to an empirical gap in the literature on the desecuritization of minorities, which has so far been largely driven by intellectual and abstract concerns. By identifying a prevalent security discourse created around the “Roma” minority throughout Europe, this thesis uses securitization theory to explain the discriminatory measures that were legitimized by this discourse. Afterwards, the case of the Roma is used to test the applicability/non-applicability of the few existing theories on the desecuritization of minorities. The conclusions arrived at indicate that, while the best strategy in desecuritizing Roma/majority relations is the initiation of multicultural narratives through the politics of difference, this is only the second step in a desecuritization process; the first step of which entails “preparing” the audience for accepting the desecuritization (read: multicultural as opposed to security discourse), which ought to be done by an “external reality” modification. This thesis ultimately calls for tackling securitized issues socially and contextually first, rather than politically, particularly when dealing with deeply embedded securitizations. |
| Supervisor | Roe, Paul |
| Department | International Relations MA |
| Full text | https://www.etd.ceu.edu/2013/morina_donjeta.pdf |
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