Politics, Protest and the Threatening Outside: A Discourse Analysis of Events at an EU Summit

Abstract

Social movement protests at an EU summit in Gothenburg in 2001 are here analysed using discourse theory. This perspective envisages the constructed character of subjects, identities and discourses structuring the social. A hegemonic project, attempting to explain the antagonisms at the summit, was emphasised through signifying chains and the use of metaphor. The hegemonic effort of rescuing a unified and fully sutured social, instituted a constitutive outside—the deviant activist—explaining the interruptions in the idea of liberal democratic politics, here substantiated by the summit. Power seems crucial for what forms of protests are considered acceptable, and ultimately for what is viewed as valid political subjects or legitimate political demands.

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