EuroStorie Podcast
EuroStorie
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The EuroStorie Podcast presents you with fresh and intriguing perspectives on European issues. In every episode we interview one specialist and focus on a certain topic related to Europe, its history, people, problems, institutions and futures.
Available episodes
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Nov 25, 2022
Sovereignty, Time, and the Death of Empire in Europe
In the last episode of this EuroStorie Podcast season, we get to talk with Natasha Wheatley about the relationship between law, time, and the state. How do we understand a sovereign state as being both a ”timeless” as well as a ”historical” political entity? What happens when a sovereign political entity suddenly dies? How does law relate to these questions? And can sovereignty transfigure time through international law? We explore these questions against the backdrop of 19th century Europe by focusing on some of the events that subsequently ensued: the collapse of the Habsburg Empire after the First World War and the process of decolonization after the Second World War.
This project is supported by the Academy of Finland funded Centre of Excellence in Law, Identity and the European Narratives. Podcast hosts: Aada Pettersson and Floris van Doorn.
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Nov 11, 2022
What is biopolitics?
In this episode of the EuroStorie Podcast, we get to know Marco Piasentier, the new team leader of Subproject 2, Discovering the Limits of Reason – Europe and the Crisis of Universalism, who helps us unpack the concept of biopolitics. Drawing from the enquiries developed by Michel Foucault in the 1970s, biopolitics refers to perspectives concerned with the entrance of biological life into the sphere of political techniques. We ask questions such as: How has biopolitics emerged in the course of European history? And what is the relationship between biopolitics and the revolutions in scientific thought that occurred during the 16th and 17th centuries? Exploring the meaning of biopolitics in the present day and age, we also discuss its relevance to contemporary debates on the Covid pandemic and climate change.
This project is supported by the Academy of Finland funded Centre of Excellence in Law, History and the European Narratives. Podcast hosts: Aada Pettersson and Floris van Doorn.
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Oct 25, 2022
Legal Imagination and the History of International Power
In this episode of the EuroStorie Podcast we talk to Martti Koskenniemi about legal imagination and how it relates to the formation of international law as a discipline. Additionally, we discuss the different ways the basic structures of international power – sovereignty and property – have been conceptualized, and how the history of legal imagination can help us better understand the nature of these concepts and their uses.
This project is supported by the Academy of Finland funded Centre of Excellence in Law, Identity and the European Narratives. Podcast hosts: Aada Pettersson and Karolina Stenlund.
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Oct 6, 2022
Socialist Justice in the GDR
In this first episode of the new EuroStorie Podcast season we dive into the history of East Germany, more specifically we tackle some of the narratives when trying to conceptualize “socialist justice” in the GDR. How did the judicial system of the GDR come into being? How did the GDR manage to engage people in upholding and supporting the moral values of the socialist legal system? More importantly, what role does the socialist “legal consciousness” (Rechtsbewusstsein) play in legal practice? University researcher and EuroStorie team leader Ville Erkkilä helps us answer these questions by giving perspectives on socialist justice through the examples of social courts and law on the protection of common property.
This project is supported by the Academy of Finland funded Centre of Excellence in Law, Identity and the European Narratives. Podcast hosts: Aada Pettersson and Floris van Doorn.
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Nov 2, 2021
What is Sustainability? An Anthropologist’s Guide to Culture and the Environment
Sustainability is a key goal in much contemporary social and political decision-making, from EU climate policy to the UN's Sustainable Development Goals. But the term has many different meanings and uses. In this episode of the EuroStorie Podcast, legal anthropologist and sustainability specialist Professor Reetta Toivanen shares her insights on the concept of cultural sustainability, how it intersects with environmental protection and human rights, and how anthropologists approach the study of Europe.
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Aug 10, 2021
Vaccine Hesitancy, Health, and Human Rights
The development and distribution of several effective vaccinations for Covid-19 means managing and living with the virus might finally be a tangible possibility. But the politics of ‘vaccine nationalism’ means distribution of the vaccine around the world has been highly uneven, while in Europe and other countries where they are widely available, there are many who worry about the safety, efficacy and accessibility of vaccinations. In this episode, we talk to Professor Pamela Slotte about her research on vaccine hesitancy and personal convictions, and connect the discussion to broader themes of public health, trust, and human rights in Europe.
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Jun 7, 2021
Is This Building European? Architecture, Europe and Empire
What can architecture teach us about contemporary debates about national identity, Europe, and empire? Is early Roman architecture part of the legacy of Europe’s ‘common heritage’ as much as Roman law and politics? What makes a building look ‘Roman’, ‘German’, ‘Finnish’ or ‘European’? Juhana Heikonen will help us understand all these questions and more, drawing on his expertise as an architect and collaborator with the Law, Governance and Space project hosted at the University of Helsinki.
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May 10, 2021
Visions of Europe! Politics and Identity at the Eurovision Song Contest
The longest-running international televised event in the world, the Eurovision Song Contest is famous for dramatic key changes and fiercely competitive bloc-voting. But what does it have to do with European cooperation and identity? How do stories of Europe and national identity play out on the musical stage? How can a contest that claims to be ‘non-political’ also claim to be part of the intrinsically political narrative of common European identity? And what is Australia doing in a competition for Europeans? This episode explores the history and politics of the ESC since it started in 1956, unpacking its dual roles in perpetuating narratives of Europe’s common heritage and in nation-branding, with plenty of the glitz, glamour and ridiculous costume changes of the contest along the way.
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Apr 12, 2021
Belonging, Community and Solidarity: Queer Experiences of Migration
In this episode, Ali Ali talks to us about his research on the themes of belonging, community and solidarity in the lives of exiles and migrants who identify as queer or sexually non-normative. Critiquing dominant narratives of Europe as a place of security, freedom and justice, Ali explains what protracted processing periods and legal limbos, complicated state bureaucracies, and societal assumptions about the ‘authenticity’ or ‘deservingness’ of queer asylum claims do to people’s senses of safety, community, and self. He also shows us how intersections between the experiences of sexually non-normative migrants and other migrant experiences can shed light on how we understand national and regional identities, and the power politics that emphasise or hide certain parts of our selves.
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Mar 8, 2021
European Disintegration?
Is Differentiated Integration the Answer to Euroscepticism?
Differentiated integration is an important part of understanding how an ever-larger European Union copes (or fails to cope) with the diversity of interests and resources among its 27 Member States. But the idea that not all states are able or want to integrate at the same pace or to the same degree is also one of the core tensions underpinning crises such as Brexit, Eurozone inequality, and rising nationalism and Euroscepticism. In the first episode of the EuroStorie Podcast Season 2, we talk to Dr Benjamin Leruth from the University of Groningen about how differentiated integration works, why some countries prefer it, and what it can tell us about Euroscepticism and the future of the EU.
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Nov 26, 2020
Striving for whiteness
The Finnish labor market is predominantly white and discrimination based on someone's ethnicity or skin color is not a new phenomenon. Having studied Russian-speaking migrants in Helsinki and Ukrainians in Warsaw, researcher Daria Krivonos talks with us about why and how migrants strive for whiteness in their new host country. Racialization and institutional racism are visible not only in the labor market but also in the conceptualizations of Europeanness and the division between East and West.
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Oct 13, 2020
Populism through a philosophical lens
There seem to be as many definitions of populism as there are researchers of it. As a concept it is widely used in the current European politics and therefore it deserves a thorough, even philosophical consideration of it. Helping us with that task is PhD student Tuukka Brunila from EuroStorie. How does populism relate to the de-politicization of certain questions? We have all heard of right-wing populism, but is there something called left-wing populism as well? If everything is political, how can we distinguish good policies from bad ones?
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Sep 18, 2020
Looking away from Europe
What if we for a change did not focus on Europe as the center of attention? What comes after Europe, what kinds of other geographical powers affect global flows of movement? Researcher Samuli Schielke’s work in Egypt brings new perspectives to thinking about Europe. We discuss Eurocentrism, people’s hopes and dreams of a better life and the limits of economic growth and natural resources.
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Aug 26, 2020
Liberties versus restrictions
In this episode, scholar Timo Miettinen offers some perspectives for understanding the balancing between individual liberties versus restrictions during the global pandemic. Going into discussions of liberalism and universalism, we talk about state intervention, trust towards political leaders and the juxtaposition between “the obedient North” and the “irresponsible South” in Europe.
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Aug 5, 2020
The many faces of migration
In the second episode, we discuss migration, refugee knowledge and European border control with Dr. Magdalena Kmak, the team leader of subproject 3 in EuroStorie. How do we label and categorize refugees and migrants? Who is welcome to Europe and who is excluded, and on what basis? How could we best handle exceptional situations like the COVID-19 pandemic and protect all humans, including those forced to leave their home countries?
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Jun 26, 2020
Europe, its hopes and fears
In the very first episode of the EuroStorie Podcast, we, together with Dr. Kaius Tuori, already tackle some big current questions: How can the previous European crises help us navigate the most recent one, the COVID-19 crisis? What kind of effects do the nationalism movements of today have on European integration? And, how has the relationship between Europe and the US evolved in the recent decades and what could we learn from America?
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