European Bodies?

Class and Gender Dynamics among EU Civil Servants in Brussels

in Anthropological Journal of European Cultures
Author:
Paweł Lewicki Europa-Universität Viadrina lewicki@europa-uni.de

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Drawing upon ethnographic fieldwork between 2007 and 2011 in Brussels, this article shows how visual markers, class distinctions and classification of gender performances come together to create a ‘Euroclass’ among European civil servants. These markings, distinctions and classifications are denoted on bodily hexis and body performance and evoke stereotypes and essentialised representations of national cultures. However, after the enlargements of the EU in 2004 and 2007 they also reveal a postcolonial and imperial dynamic that perpetuates the division into ‘old’ and ‘new’ Europe and enables people from old member states to emerge as a different class that holds its cultural power firm in a dense political environment permeated by networks.

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Anthropological Journal of European Cultures

(formerly: Anthropological Yearbook of European Cultures)

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