Denny Pencheva - Academia.edu (original) (raw)

Conference Presentations by Denny Pencheva

PSA CONFERENCE , 2019

In the aftermath of the referendum on the UK's membership to the EU, the Prime Minister delivered... more In the aftermath of the referendum on the UK's membership to the EU, the Prime Minister delivered a series of key speeches in London's Lancaster House and Mansion House, and in Florence. In these speeches the Prime Minister set out her vision for a global prosperous country disengaged from the political, economic and legal structures of the EU. A common that runs through speeches and public statement on Brexit is the imperative need to terminate the free movement of EU workers to the UK. While the UK government is yet to publish a comprehensive post-Brexit immigration policy a report by the Migration Advisory Committee argues for the need to offer visas in tiered system based on skills and income in proportion of the contribution of immigrants to the UK economy. Present and future immigration policies will have to reflect public anxieties generated by media discourses and political rhetoric about the impact of immigration on cohesion, identity and public services and at the same time to address the needs of the economy in terms of skills, salaries and overall number of the working population. Such suggestions have been rebuked by trade unions and business federations (TUC, Unite, CBI, NFU) who demand access to a larger pool of low skilled workers to fill in vacancy in construction, agriculture and farming, hospitality and service economy. For trade unions and business federations the most efficient way to tackle the decrease of the flow of immigrant workers coming to the UK is to increase the levels of automation in specific sectors of the economy. By systematically and comparatively examining these speeches and subsequent responses we seek to develop a twofold argument. First, the discourses of automation of work and of low-skilled immigration construct a narrative in which competition, precarious employment and insecurity are normalised. This narrative is produced disseminated and controlled by the government and corporations and is occasionally contested by trade unions and individual workers. Despite differences and conflicting interests both government and corporations are able to defend the ethos of the competitive neoliberal labour market by pointing out to the necessity of economic growth, ever-higher productivity and the country's ability to compete in the global economy. Second, we draw on the theoretical elaborations of Michel Foucault, Isabell Lorey and Wendy Brown for arguing that automation of work and low-skilled immigration are not inherently progressive but rather they depend on the political organisation framework in which they exist. Automation and immigration transform the neoliberal subject homo oeconomicus from a subject attached to power and interest to a subject existing in precarity: job insecurity, debt, austerity and fiscal consolidation. The indiscriminate exposure to precarious labour conditions functions a disciplinary mechanism for all those partaking in the competitive labour market.

ACADEMIC ARTICLES AND OPINION PIECES by Denny Pencheva

European Politics and Society , 2018

ABSTRACT In this article we approach Brexit via the conceptual framing of sovereignty in the poli... more ABSTRACT
In this article we approach Brexit via the conceptual framing of sovereignty in the political communication of the Remain and Leave campaigns. This angle, despite its general salience in public discourse, has been analytically underutilized. We put forward a twofold argument: i) that national sovereignty has been fetishized in both campaigns, and that ii) this has important implications for the discursive construction of self and other within the neoliberal paradigm. By employing a Foucauldian understanding of neoliberalism, as well as Sivanandan’s [(2001). Poverty is the new black. Race & Class, 43(2), 1–5] notion of xeno-racism, we theoretically and empirically identify the status of homo oeconomicus in order to analyse the fetishization of sovereignty according to precarity and ethno-racial terms. The framing of the nexus between sovereignty and immigration reveals that the other to homo oeconomicus is not to be found outside the neoliberal paradigm, but rather within it. The self and other homo oeconomicus are narrated as constantly competing with each other over scarce employment and welfare resources. The framing of both campaigns recognizes and validates the anxieties of the British homo oeconomicus self and suggests that they should be anxious about the xeno homo oeconomicus not because of their respective differences but because of their sameness.

Books by Denny Pencheva

Changes and Challenges of Cross-border Mobility within the European Union, 2020

PSA CONFERENCE , 2019

In the aftermath of the referendum on the UK's membership to the EU, the Prime Minister delivered... more In the aftermath of the referendum on the UK's membership to the EU, the Prime Minister delivered a series of key speeches in London's Lancaster House and Mansion House, and in Florence. In these speeches the Prime Minister set out her vision for a global prosperous country disengaged from the political, economic and legal structures of the EU. A common that runs through speeches and public statement on Brexit is the imperative need to terminate the free movement of EU workers to the UK. While the UK government is yet to publish a comprehensive post-Brexit immigration policy a report by the Migration Advisory Committee argues for the need to offer visas in tiered system based on skills and income in proportion of the contribution of immigrants to the UK economy. Present and future immigration policies will have to reflect public anxieties generated by media discourses and political rhetoric about the impact of immigration on cohesion, identity and public services and at the same time to address the needs of the economy in terms of skills, salaries and overall number of the working population. Such suggestions have been rebuked by trade unions and business federations (TUC, Unite, CBI, NFU) who demand access to a larger pool of low skilled workers to fill in vacancy in construction, agriculture and farming, hospitality and service economy. For trade unions and business federations the most efficient way to tackle the decrease of the flow of immigrant workers coming to the UK is to increase the levels of automation in specific sectors of the economy. By systematically and comparatively examining these speeches and subsequent responses we seek to develop a twofold argument. First, the discourses of automation of work and of low-skilled immigration construct a narrative in which competition, precarious employment and insecurity are normalised. This narrative is produced disseminated and controlled by the government and corporations and is occasionally contested by trade unions and individual workers. Despite differences and conflicting interests both government and corporations are able to defend the ethos of the competitive neoliberal labour market by pointing out to the necessity of economic growth, ever-higher productivity and the country's ability to compete in the global economy. Second, we draw on the theoretical elaborations of Michel Foucault, Isabell Lorey and Wendy Brown for arguing that automation of work and low-skilled immigration are not inherently progressive but rather they depend on the political organisation framework in which they exist. Automation and immigration transform the neoliberal subject homo oeconomicus from a subject attached to power and interest to a subject existing in precarity: job insecurity, debt, austerity and fiscal consolidation. The indiscriminate exposure to precarious labour conditions functions a disciplinary mechanism for all those partaking in the competitive labour market.

European Politics and Society , 2018

ABSTRACT In this article we approach Brexit via the conceptual framing of sovereignty in the poli... more ABSTRACT
In this article we approach Brexit via the conceptual framing of sovereignty in the political communication of the Remain and Leave campaigns. This angle, despite its general salience in public discourse, has been analytically underutilized. We put forward a twofold argument: i) that national sovereignty has been fetishized in both campaigns, and that ii) this has important implications for the discursive construction of self and other within the neoliberal paradigm. By employing a Foucauldian understanding of neoliberalism, as well as Sivanandan’s [(2001). Poverty is the new black. Race & Class, 43(2), 1–5] notion of xeno-racism, we theoretically and empirically identify the status of homo oeconomicus in order to analyse the fetishization of sovereignty according to precarity and ethno-racial terms. The framing of the nexus between sovereignty and immigration reveals that the other to homo oeconomicus is not to be found outside the neoliberal paradigm, but rather within it. The self and other homo oeconomicus are narrated as constantly competing with each other over scarce employment and welfare resources. The framing of both campaigns recognizes and validates the anxieties of the British homo oeconomicus self and suggests that they should be anxious about the xeno homo oeconomicus not because of their respective differences but because of their sameness.

Changes and Challenges of Cross-border Mobility within the European Union, 2020