My 'artsy fartsy' dissertation project

So, my friend Lars (http://lgp.smartlog.dk) called my dissertation 'artsy fartsy' - wonder what that means? Anyway, this is what it is...

The “but…” of Denmark
A portrait drawn through discourse: metamorphoses of racism seen through the controversy over the drawings of the Prophet Muhammed
The transformation of content in ‘racist’ discourse and the need for a conceptual change in dealing with discriminatory speech and practices in a European context.

Content.

Racism is not what it used to be. However successful Europe was in quelling racist practices after WWII, the narrative of qualitative differences as constituting insoluable problems between groups in society is still dominating the discourse of coherence, coexistence and stability of European societies.
This thesis will concentrate on
i) The transformation of classical racism into a more subtle, but just as powerful version of verbal degradation concentrating on cultural characteristics rather than racial ones
ii) The substance of a ‘new’ narrative of differences and its relation to collective identity construction

iii) The acceptance of the narrative in politics, constituting in effect the ‘institutional racism’ of our day

Broad recognition is given in public discourse to the contention that the glue keeping society together is the existence of an ‘us’ (inside) fundamentally different from ‘them’ (outside). As ‘them’ moved into the space inhabited by ‘us’ in European societies, a dominating negative discourse of differences emerged.
The growing support for right-wing parties is disquieting because their political agendas are in fact promoting feelings of hate and ideas of unequal human worth (on other grounds than race) thereby undermining basic human rights principles. We need to name the phenomenon in the right proportions, i.e. as fundamentally destructive as racism, to address the challenge it poses to democracies throughout the Continent.

That's it! Must admit that I'm very excited about the project - but also surprised that this fact doesn't necessarily mean that I'm working harder on it...