The discursive construction of Austrian identity/ies 2015: a longitudinal study

The discursive construction of national identities has become a crucial field of research in cultural studies and the humanities since the 1990s. Research focusing on the constitutive role of discourse has drawn on work in historiography, sociology and political science. The years 2014-2015 offer the opportunity to conduct a longitudinal study into the discursive construction of Austrian identity, up- date our previous research and the underlying approach. For one, 2015 again represents a significant commemorative year for Austria (20th ann. EU membership, 70th ann. Declaration of Independence, 60th ann. State Treaty). For another, it offers the opportunity to trace the discursive construction of Austrian identity from a longitudinal perspective (1995-2005-2015), using qualitative and quantitative analyses. The research will span 20 years, maintaining its theoretical framework, methods and data- sources, making it unique and innovative in the international field. We draw on extensive projects conducted around 1995 and 2005. Their approach (an interdisciplinary framework integrating CDA with approaches from political sciences, historiography and sociology in the Discourse-Historical-Approach) has been widely acknowledged by the international scientific community and applied in studies of the discursive construction of national identity in numerous coun- tries, proving robust and flexible. The DHA is distinguished by its acknowledgment of historical con- text, adherence to the principle of methodological triangulation and critical perspective. Nonetheless, it is imperative that the proposed project place new emphases, thereby responding to social and global developments. This includes debates over citizenship and naturalization, the signifi- cance of cultural and linguistic aspects; the crisis since 2008; the ambivalent role of the EU vis-à- vis its member states; and new possibilities for participation and deliberation through Social Media and Web 2.0. The overarching aim is to facilitate a longitudinal perspective by tracing the development of the discursive construction of national identities over 20 years. We ask if and how the discourses previously identified persist or change. We will compile comparative corpora for the data previously analyzed (political speeches, newspa- pers, group discussions, interviews) and new corpora to account for recent developments (legislation, jurisprudence, multimodal texts, online postings). In addition to the 5 areas previously investigated (Homo Austriacus, a common past, culture, political present and future as well as a national body) to be continued, we include four new areas: (1) the relation between the construction of national identity, migration and discursive and legal aspects of citizenship as well as naturalization; (2) cultural and linguistic elements in the construction of national identity (Kulturnation); (3) the medias presentation of human bodies in sports; (4) the role of Web 2.0 and Social Media in the construction of national identity. As in previous work, the anniversaries and commemorative events shall serve as foci for the analyses.

Austrian (and other national) identity/ies are constructed predominantly through discourses in political, media, legal, educational and academic fields of social action. National identity/ies are thus continuously re/negotiated and changed. This project showed how constructions of Austrian identity had changed over the last 20 years (1995-2015/16) in what might be considered contradictory directions: On the one hand, tendencies of re/nationalization became more apparent; on the other hand, trans- national influences also became ever stronger. Austrian identity/ies are constructed along five central dimensions: the construction of a typical Austrian, a shared past, present and future as well as a common culture and a national body. These categories were investigated in various contexts: group discussions (in Vienna, Burgenland, Vorarlberg and Carinthia), individual interviews (with private citizens as well as prominent figures of public life), media reporting, parliamentary debates, jurisprudence, election campaign posters and speeches, commemorative speeches, social media, advertisement, popular culture etc. In contrast to 1995 and 2005, the commemorative speeches and celebrations held by official representatives of the state in 2015 showed the internationalization of commemorating the Second World War and Holocaust, an emphasis on authentic testimony (e.g. eye witnesses) as well as in- creased efforts to draw lessons from the past for the present and future. Since media reporting and politics were heavily influenced by the so-called refugee crisis in 2015, this also impacted related constructions of national identity/ies and processes of exclusion. Thus, immigration was strongly instrumentalized in election campaigns during 2015 and 2016, moving national symbols and stereo- types to the forefront: traditional clothing, peaceful pastures, pristine lakes, flags and smiling white people served the right-wing populist construction of an Us versus a threatening Other. Already in early 2015, we observed a shift in the hegemonic political view of integration, when immediately after the terrorist attacks in Paris (January 2015), Austrian politicians linked terrorism and the un- willingness to integrate. Said unwillingness to integrate, they demanded, should be punished in order to safeguard Austrian values and enforce the integration of, e.g., pupils and their parents. Moreover, we noted the increased significance of German competence to be proven through testing, e.g. in educational contexts and to attain residency. At the same time, the Austrian variety of the German language no longer serves as much as a distinction from neighboring Germany as it did in 1995, when Austria joined the European Union, and in 2005. However, businesses and especially advertising in 2015 make heavy use of Austria-specific vocabulary and dialects in order to construct values such as regional and authentic produce. These examples illustrate some of the key continuities and transformations in the construction of Austrian identity/ies identified and analyzed in the project.