Metamorphic Necropolitics: Deadly Othering in European East–West Power Relations

Abstract

Focusing on East–West power relations in Europe, this chapter proposes that we think about necropolitics as a dynamic metamorphic relationality. We identify four processes through which necropolitics metamorphises in the context of our case studies: the negotiation of European East–West borders through deadly labour politics during the Covid-19 pandemic, the politics of death in localised global corporatisation, anti-LGBTQ+ politics, and the negotiation of EU borders through the anti-refugee politics deployed on the eastern border of Poland. In our analysis, necropolitics emerges as a metamorphic process of co-constitution, differentiality, and layering, wherein the subjugation of one group to necropolitical power does not preclude the perpetuation of necropolitics against other groups deemed to be ‘internal’ or ‘external’ Others.