Conviviality at : the crossroads the poetics and politics of everyday encounters

Abstract

This book is a product of the research network Conviviality at the Crossroads at Malmö University, Sweden. It grew out of a casual collaboration between Malmö University and Bard College Berlin in response to the large refugee migration from Syria to Europe in the early autumn of 2015. Sweden and Germany were at the time exceptions to the European rule and welcomed refugees. A frst seminar in Berlin in November 2015, hosted by Kerry Bystrom and Bard College, was followed by a symposium (Transit Europe1) in Malmö in September 2016. In less than a year, the situation had dramatically changed; both Sweden and Germany had adopted restrictive migration policies, with border controls disrupting the formerly seamless passage between Denmark and Sweden. In 2016, the EU had moreover been rocked to its foundations by the British Brexit vote and, one year after our frst seminar, Donald Trump won the US Presidential election.