The volume deals with question of the representations of the Other and otherness in relation to the process of Europeanization. To tackle this broad area of reflection in Poland and Sweden, we propose investigating the process of the social imagining of the Other based on encounters with the otherness in these two countries in time of a rising refugee crisis and reawakening of nationalisms in Europe. We start from the conviction that meeting the Other and otherness is not necessarily based on dialogue and mutual understanding, however it certainly offers an opportunity to formulate and update collective self-definitions and self-images.

Our proposal is to look at how at present multiple representations of the Other are (being) constructed, Europeanized (?) and used in Poland and Sweden through different forms of experiencing otherness. In a more general sense, we ask the question of how difference (culture, ethnicity, gender etc.) is constructed and thus leads to its social inclusion, domestication, marginalization or – increasingly common in today’s Europe – exclusion. Our intention is to analyze the processes of inclusion and exclusion of the Other(s) into/from the official public discourse.

The idea of the volume is to trace the presence of the Other and otherness in Poland and Sweden in various heritage related contexts (museums, cities, war cemeteries, commemoration sites etc.), capturing and analyzing their depictions whilst considering in particular their role in the process of the redefinition of European and national identity which is taking place in Scandinavian and Central European peripheries.