L’Europe et ses noirs : étude de cas sur la négrité à Prague et à Paris, et ses enjeux contemporains

• Thesis title in thesis language (French): L’Europe et ses noirs : étude de cas sur la négrité à Prague et à Paris, et ses enjeux contemporains
• Thesis title in Czech: Být černým Evropanem: případová studie role městského prostoru Prahy a Paříže a současných výzev.
• Thesis title in English: Being a European black person: a case study on the role of the urban space of Prague and Paris and current challenges.
• Key words: černí Evropané|kulturní rozdíly|černý|identity|urbánní antropologie|kulturní studia
• English key words: Black Europeans|Cultural Differences|Blackness|identity|Urban Anthropology|Cultural studies
• Academic year of topic announcement: 2019/2020
• Thesis type: diploma thesis
• Thesis language: francouzština
• Department: Institute of General History (21-USD)
• Supervisor: Mgr. Linda Kovářová, Ph.D.
• Author: hidden - assigned and confirmed by the Study Dept.
• Date of registration: 19.12.2019
• Date of assignment: 20.12.2019
• Administrator's approval: not processed yet
• Confirmed by Study dept. on: 30.01.2020
• Date and time of defence: 26.01.2021 15:15
• Date of electronic submission: 04.01.2021
• Date of proceeded defence: 26.01.2021
• Submitted/finalized: committed by worker on behalf on and finalized
• Opponents: prof. Markéta Křížová, Ph.D.

Guidelines

“In the World through which I travel, I am endlessly creating myself.” ― Frantz Fanon
In this thesis, one of my first aim among others is to discuss and put in perspective the different levels of identification that can coexist and contribute to the creation of a person. I want to understand the impact and the role played by the city in one’s identity-building process by studying the self-perception of visibly black people in Prague and Paris.
Why working on blackness within the European context? I decided to work on blackness for many reasons, one being that blackness as much as whiteness are social constructs. However, when whiteness has a history of multiplicity and white people are being granted individuality, blackness on the other hand, is often seen as an encompassing term, a monolithic social group in every sense of the word with its ‘‘members’’ sharing the same history and past across the globe. It’s because of the peculiarity of blackness, because it is seen as a factor of global identity that I wanted to study it in Europe. Working on blackness in Europe is working on a topic that would look like an oxymoron. Indeed, Europe is associated with whiteness and blackness is associated with Africa. Therefore, thinking about black Europeans or about black people being Europeans might appear as a cognitive dissonance for some people. This is that cognitive dissonance that I also want to analyse in that thesis and through it, the notion of “black community”. Indeed, by asking if being black in Paris and being black in Prague mean and entail the same thing, I intend on questioning the notion of unity or diversity of European black identities.
Why working on Prague and Paris ? Prague and Paris are understood within their national context in this thesis, because of the ties or lack of ties that they had with African countries. Indeed, France colonial past turned Paris into a somehow multicultural city when Czech Republic ties and relationships have mainly been with other European countries. Thus, processing and thinking about blackness and Europeanness in these two countries and two cities might produce very different answers and definitions. By taking these two very different cities, I intend on discussing the impact of history in present day society; how history can be an identity-builder and shape the relationship one has with its city, (and maybe with its country too), depending on the model of integration chosen. I will discuss how that model of integration (assimilation, multiculturalism, absence of model) can affect black people in the construction of their blackness.
The fieldwork method will be used in this thesis, I will conduct interviews with black Praguers and black Parisians to understand the importance of their skin color is in the way they perceive themselves; to see if it is a big part of their identity, if it comes before or after their national/local identity, if there are some patterns in the perception of the self and if these patterns are spatially induced or induced by other aspects of their lives.

References

Hall, Stuart (1997). Representation: Cultural Representations and Signifying Practices. London: Sage.
Hall, Stuart; Du Gay, Paul (eds.) (2011). Questions of Cultural Identity. SAGE Publications
Lefebvre, Henri (1974) The Production of Space, trans. Donald Nicholson-Smith, (1991) Oxford: Basil Blackwell
Gilroy, Paul (2000). Between Camps: Race, Identity and Nationalism at the End of the Colour Line. London: Allen Lane The Penguin Press.
Barth, Fredrik (1969). Ethnic groups and boundaries. The social organization of culture difference. Oslo: Universitetsforlaget.
Raibaud, Yves (2017). La ville faite par et pour les hommes. Dans l’espace urbain, une mixité en trompe l’œil. Paris: Egale à égal, Belin.
Jenkins, Richard (1997). Rethinking Ethnicity: Arguments and Explorations. SAGE
Muehlenbeck, Philip (2016). Czechoslovakia in Africa, 1945–1968. Palgrave Macmillan US.
McEachrane, Michael (Ed.). (2014). Afro-Nordic Landscapes: Equality and Race in Northern Europe. New York: Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group.
Essed, P., Farquharson, K., Pillay, K., White, E.J. (Eds.) (2019). Relating Worlds of Racism: Dehumanisation, Belonging, and the Normativity of European Whiteness. Palgrave Macmillan
Wilder, Gary (2015) Freedom Time: Negritude, Decolonization, and the Future of the World. Duke University Press Books
Clarke, K & Thomas, D. (eds.) (2005). Globalization and Race:Transformations In The Cultural Production Of Blackness. Duke University Press
Yin, Robert K. (2014). Case study research: Design and methods Third edition. Sage.
Rawi, Abdelal (ed.) (2009). Measuring Identity. A guide for social scientists. Cambridge New York: Cambridge University Press.
Wright, M., & Bloemraad, I. (2012). Is There a Trade-off between Multiculturalism and Socio-Political Integration? Policy Regimes and Immigrant Incorporation in Comparative Perspective. Perspectives on Politics. Cambridge University Press online.