Thesis Chapters by Franz Bernhardt
This dissertation concerns the extent to which resentment can constitute an instrument of social ... more This dissertation concerns the extent to which resentment can constitute an instrument of social reconciliation. In particular, it aims to investigate the nature and rationale of victims’ refusal to forgive and their fostering of resentments after crimes against humanity. To do this it analyses Jean Améry phenomenological account of victim's resentment and the immorality of forgiving in the context of escapist forgetfulness, as described in his essay Resentment (1966). It compares this perspective to the concept of worldly and political forgiveness developed by Hannah Arendt in The Human Condition (1958). It argues that a more critical understanding of forgiveness and its implications are helpful for theoretical and practical reasons. Theoretically, it reveals important tensions in Arendt’s writing. Practically it highlights the importance of developing new modes of reconciliation in the field of transitional justice. The dissertation concludes that critical engagement with resentment as a instrument for reconciliation between antagonistic groups can be an effective catalyst for such an endeavor.
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Papers by Franz Bernhardt
Routledge eBooks, Apr 4, 2024
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The Geographical Journal, Nov 14, 2023
In 2010, the UK government transferred all contracts for the accommodation and reception of asylu... more In 2010, the UK government transferred all contracts for the accommodation and reception of asylum seekers from local authorities to private contractors, followed by large financial cuts to support services. This article explores the consequences of these neoliberal reforms for the languages of asylum used by the City of Sanctuary movement, and how these languages relate to the politics of asylum of the state. Drawing on an analysis of semi-structured interviews with the founders and volunteers of the movement in Swansea, the article uses Heideggerian and Derridean theories to show how the movement's original language of ‘friendship’ emerged in response to the UK government framing asylum seekers through languages underpinned by ‘foreignness’ and was meant to reduce relational distance. It then shows how neoliberal reforms of asylum housing caused discursive and practical changes within the movement: a moral responsibilisation of volunteers to substitute for support services lost through austerity measures, and a structural professionalisation to be able to do this support work. It was those structural changes, this article argues, which shifted the dominant framing of the relation between volunteers and asylum seekers from friends to case workers. This reestablishment of relational distance is of conceptual importance as it highlights how friends and foreigners can often be constructed in a very similar manner.
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The Geographical Journal , 2023
In 2010, the UK government transferred all contracts for the accommodation and reception of asylu... more In 2010, the UK government transferred all contracts for the accommodation and reception of asylum seekers from local authorities to private contractors, followed by large financial cuts to support services. This article explores the consequences of these neoliberal reforms for the languages of asylum used by the City of Sanctuary movement, and how these languages relate to the politics of asylum of the state. Drawing on an analysis of semi-structured interviews with the founders and volunteers of the movement in Swansea, the article uses Heideggerian and Derridean theories to show how the movement's original language of ‘friendship’
emerged in response to the UK government framing asylum seekers through languages underpinned by ‘foreignness’ and was meant to reduce relational distance. It then shows how neoliberal reforms of asylum housing caused discursive and practical changes within the movement: a moral responsibilisation of volunteers to substitute for support services lost through austerity measures, and a structural professionalisation to be able to do this support work. It was those structural changes, this article argues, which shifted the dominant framing of the relation between volunteers and asylum seekers from friends to case workers. This reestablishment of relational distance is of conceptual importance as it highlights how friends and foreigners can often be constructed in a very similar manner.
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Political Geography, 2023
The 1999 Immigration and Asylum Act marked a watershed moment for the politics of asylum in the U... more The 1999 Immigration and Asylum Act marked a watershed moment for the politics of asylum in the UK, setting the discursive groundwork for the now infamous ‘hostile environment’. This article is the first to compare the discursive framings of this formative act by the Home Office and UK government with those of the then newly devolved Welsh political institutions. While exploring the dominant visions of asylum as fear, unease and hostility marking the act, this paper highlights contrasting national narratives and imaginaries of welcome and hospitality in Welsh institutions. Drawing on a discourse analysis of archived policy documents, newspapers and interview material, the paper argues that these emerging hospitable imaginaries constituted a form of Welsh national identity formation against a less hospitable ‘Other’- the UK sovereign state. This article contributes to the critical migration literature by questioning if the notion of hospitality involves more than the ambivalent framing of non-citizens as guests and others, or if instead it is more intended to differentiate from sovereign responses to asylum.
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Hospitality & Society, 2022
In response to the large number of refugees and asylum seekers arriving in Europe in 2015, the de... more In response to the large number of refugees and asylum seekers arriving in Europe in 2015, the devolved Welsh government committed that Wales should become the world’s first Nation of Sanctuary through building a ‘culture of welcome and hospitality’. This article compares the discursive responses of the sovereign British and devolved Welsh government to this summer of migration in 2015. It argues that such a comparison provides new theoretical ways of revisiting the metaphor of hospitality and its role in discursive framings of the phenomenon of migration. While the literature on migration and the sanctuary movement has explored the limits of hospitality as a frame and response to the exclusionary politics of asylum, this article argues that this new sanctuary discourse is also used to challenge the sovereign nation state on the expectations of what moral responsibilities it entails to be a ‘host’ to refugees and asylum seekers. Drawing on interview material and official documents f...
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cultural geographies
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Reports by Franz Bernhardt
Moving Cities; Seebruecke and Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung , 2021
The “Moving Cities Map” showcases successful local approaches to migration and inclusion across t... more The “Moving Cities Map” showcases successful local approaches to migration and inclusion across the whole of Europe. It is the first mapping exercise to provide in-depth research on 28 progressive Solidarity Cities in ten European countries and their strategies for welcoming migrants and refugees. It also presents 50 of their most inspiring local initiatives and provides an overview of all active European cities and their most extensive networks with other cities.
The city report contains more information about the city’s migration and inclusion policies and selected local approaches.
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Thesis Chapters by Franz Bernhardt
Papers by Franz Bernhardt
emerged in response to the UK government framing asylum seekers through languages underpinned by ‘foreignness’ and was meant to reduce relational distance. It then shows how neoliberal reforms of asylum housing caused discursive and practical changes within the movement: a moral responsibilisation of volunteers to substitute for support services lost through austerity measures, and a structural professionalisation to be able to do this support work. It was those structural changes, this article argues, which shifted the dominant framing of the relation between volunteers and asylum seekers from friends to case workers. This reestablishment of relational distance is of conceptual importance as it highlights how friends and foreigners can often be constructed in a very similar manner.
Reports by Franz Bernhardt
The city report contains more information about the city’s migration and inclusion policies and selected local approaches.
emerged in response to the UK government framing asylum seekers through languages underpinned by ‘foreignness’ and was meant to reduce relational distance. It then shows how neoliberal reforms of asylum housing caused discursive and practical changes within the movement: a moral responsibilisation of volunteers to substitute for support services lost through austerity measures, and a structural professionalisation to be able to do this support work. It was those structural changes, this article argues, which shifted the dominant framing of the relation between volunteers and asylum seekers from friends to case workers. This reestablishment of relational distance is of conceptual importance as it highlights how friends and foreigners can often be constructed in a very similar manner.
The city report contains more information about the city’s migration and inclusion policies and selected local approaches.