Chapter 4, written by Katja Brøgger, is concerned with the return of nationalist
tendencies and movements and their effects on post-World War II efforts
at harmonising higher education within the European Union. Writing from her
own location within a Danish institution of higher education, Brøgger centres
her arguments on Derrida’s (1994) understanding of the haunting of ghosts
as a matter of revenance, that is, ‘a question of repetition’ (p. 11). From there,
she traces Europe’s ghosts of nationalism back to the beginnings of modern
territorial statehood, so as to contextualise the ebbs, flows, and complex entanglements of international alliances, nationalist policies and outright xenophobic interventions in contemporary Danish education policies and practice within an analysis of a much wider European political crisis. Brøgger argues that as participants in higher education obey new and emerging protectionist laws, justice remains yet to come. Importantly, however, she stays clear of making recommendations towards how then researchers, educators, and students of Danish (and European) higher education should respond: ‘What is needed’ she says, ‘is political action, and I am reluctant to point towards these groups and make them responsible’ (Brøgger, 2020).
