Description

The Ghent Institute for International and European Studies (GIES) is delighted to invite you to a book talk event on "Coming in: Sexual Politics and EU accession in Serbia" (Manchester University Press, 2023), with the author Dr. Koen Slootmaeckers (Senior Lecturer at City, University of London).

LGBT rights have become increasingly salient within the EU enlargement process as a litmus test for Europeanness. But the promotion of these norms has provided a basis for political contestation. “Coming In” interrogates the normative dimensions of the EU enlargement process, with special reference to LGBT politics. Reconceptualising Europeanisation, it argues that EU enlargement is a process of negotiated transformation in which EU policies and norms are (re)defined, translated and transformed. Empirically, it analyses the promotion of and resistance to LGBT equality norms in Serbia's EU integration process, but it looks beyond policies to the impact of the negotiated transitions on lived experiences. Overall, the book raises important questions about the political and social consequences of Europeanisation. At its heart is one crucial question: what do we consider progress?