Cervinkova, Hana
(2013)
The Kidnapping of Wroclaw’s
Dwarves
The Symbolic Politics of Neoliberalism
in Urban East-Central Europe.
East European Politics and Societies and Cultures, 27 (4).
pp. 743-756.
Abstract
In this paper, I draw on the approach to the study of “actually existing liberalisms” with
an example from contemporary urban east-central Europe. I focus on the city of
Wroclaw, a success story of Poland’s economic urban transformation, and consider the
symbolic politics embodied in the city’s promotional strategy as a tool of ongoing
neoliberal restructuring. I argue that an important feature of the city’s symbolic politics
is the commodification and fetishization of dwarves, the historical symbols of an antitotalitarian movement that used the image of a dwarf as a means for people’s deliberative and performative action that helped lay foundations for democracy. Today, the
historical legacy of dwarves as a means of associational and performative action has
been disguised in the city’s promotional strategy, which has turned dwarves into commodities that help sell the city on the global neoliberal market of intercity competition.
I call this process of contemporary fetishization, the kidnapping of Wroclaw’s dwarves.
Kidnapping refers to the process whereby the symbol’s meaning and historical legacy
is turned into a commodity, disempowering it by depriving it of its meaning for social
action. At the conclusion of my paper, I offer a critical ethnographic and pedagogical
perspective focused on symbolic politics as a venue for understanding and inspiring
critical action in the context of these urban neoliberal developments.
| Item Type: |
Article
|
| Keywords: |
wroclaw; neoliberalism; dwarves; place marketing; memory; |
| Academic Unit: |
Faculty of Social Sciences > Anthropology |
| Item ID: |
12749 |
| Identification Number: |
https://doi.org/10.1177/0888325413488627 |
| Depositing User: |
Hana Cervinkova
|
| Date Deposited: |
16 Apr 2020 13:36 |
| Journal or Publication Title: |
East European Politics and Societies and Cultures |
| Publisher: |
SAGE Publications |
| Refereed: |
Yes |
| URI: |
|
| Use Licence: |
This item is available under a Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial Share Alike Licence (CC BY-NC-SA). Details of this licence are available
here |
Repository Staff Only(login required)
 |
Item control page |
Downloads per month over past year
Origin of downloads
Altmetric
Altmetric