Montenegro

Montenegro

The New Balkan Revolts: From Protests to Plenums, and Beyond

Igor Štiks and Srećko Horvat
Balkan revolts

The current wave of protests and plenums in Bosnia and Herzegovina may thus represent the birth of true activist citizenship, and the profound politisation of a society over the most fundamental questions for any country, namely social justice and equality for all its citizens. What happens in Bosnia, will not stay only in Bosnia.

Over the last couple of years we have regularly witnessed popular protests and uprisings in the post-socialist Balkans. The well-known mobilisations, struggles and street violence in the southern part of the peninsula, in Greece and Turkey, have a constant and yet under-reported echo in other Balkan states.

LGBT rights and EU accession process in Southeast Europe

Katja Kahlina
LGBT YU

As the case of on-going transformations of sexual citizenship in post-Yugoslav space shows, globalization and EU-isation open up a space for introducing positive practices related to sexual citizenship into the local contexts. However, as this case also reveals, the improvement of citizenship policies may easily be instrumentalised by different actors involved at the national and international arenas. Thus, more attention should be paid to the ways in which LGBT rights intersect with other discourses and relations of power on the global and local levels.

This is an extended summary of a longer paper that was originally published in the CITSEE working paper series and is available for download here.

CITSEE: 8 new working papers on various aspects of citizenship in Southeast Europe

CITSEE Working Papers

This brings the number of working papers produced so far by CITSEE researchers and associated scholars to 33, and shows our increased focus on thematic and comparative studies

The CITSEE team is pleased to announce the publication of eight new papers in its Working Paper Series on citizenship regimes in post-Yugoslav states.

Being an Activist: Feminist citizenship in Yugoslavia and post-Yugoslav spaces

Adriana Zaharijević
Activist citizenship

If feminist citizenship in SFRY has to be seen in the context of dissidence, while feminist citizenship in the context of nation-building needs to be assessed by its relationship to belonging and borders, then the post-Yugoslav feminist citizenship has to be understood in terms of political re-appropriation and re-politicization of Yugoslav socialist heritage. This re-politicization needs to be seen in the context of rigorous critique of socio-economic relations brought by neoliberal capitalism, but within the specific post-conflict and post-socialist circumstances. 

This is an extended summary of a longer paper that was originally published in the CITSEE Working Papers Series and is available for download here.

CITSEE discussion: Varieties of Citizenship in a wider Europe

citizenship in Europe

‘Varieties of citizenship in a wider and more territorially differentiated Europe’ was a panel discussion organised as part of the CITSEE symposium ‘Varieties of Citizenship in Southeast Europe’ (6-7 June, 2013) in Edinburgh. 

Varieties of citizenship in a wider and more territorially differentiated Europe’ was a panel discussion organised as part of the CITSEE symposium ‘Varieties of Citizenship in Southeast Europe&rs

Romani subaltern in the context of transforming post-Yugoslav citizenship regimes

Julija Sardelić
Romani flag

Romani minorities in the post-Yugoslav space had uneven access to citizenship, which was specific to their socio-economic and also culturally stigmatised condition as the Subaltern, who was not able to voice its plight or it was ignored. Romani individuals who were positioned as non-citizens at their place of residence were in the most unfavourable position. However, even those minority individuals, who were able to access citizenship at their place of residence, found themselves in uneven position in comparison to other citizens. All post-Yugoslav states, also due to the dialogue with international organisations and EU integration processes, introduced legislation for minority protection, which included also Romani minorities. However, in most cases (excluding Slovenia), Romani minorities were included into the generic legal acts on minority protection, which did not recognise the fact that they are culturally stigmatised as well as have a different socioeconomic position than most other minorities. 

This is an extended summary of a longer paper that was originally  published in the CITSEE working paper series and is available for download here.

CITSEE Symposium: Varieties of Citizenship in South East Europe

CITSEE Symposium June 2013

The CITSEE project held a symposium on June 6 and 7, 2013, with papers drawing on the various CITSEE clusters and two roundtables. In addtion to the Edinburgh based CITSEE team, and wider members of the CITSEE community based in many different universities, we also brought toget

Utopias of Democracy -– 6th Subversive Festival in Zagreb, Croatia

Sara Valenzuela Borken-Hage
6th Subversive Festival

At a time when the crisis of the Euro and the doubts about the viability of the EU are deepening, South Eastern Europe continues to be centre of the crisis, the open wound; a visual reminder of the flawed dynamics that rule the collective psyches of Europe and those in control [of it]. In lieu of this, Subversive recognises the importance of this discussion and the creation of a common understanding amongst social movements at this particular moment in time.

This article originally appeared in Bturn magazine in a slightly modified version

Serbian Citizenship: The Recent Developments

Marko Milenkovic
Parliament of Serbia

Over the past two years there have been more than a few interesting legal and political developments regarding the Serbian citizenship regime. Firstly, there were a number of acts adopted that are important for the regime. Secondly, citizenship itself and related issues remain at the forefront of the dispute between Serbia and the province of Kosovo over its status as an independent state.

The citizenship regime in Serbia has gone through a series of changes in the past twenty years that reflect the shifting political and ethnic landscape in the former Yugoslavia.

Territoriality and Citizenship: Membership and Sub-State Polities in Post-Yugoslav Space

Dejan Stjepanović
Bilingual street names in Istria

One of the problems of equating polities with ethno-majoritarian territories, the paper argues, is their unidimensionality. This is especially true for those polities without historical precedents or strong functional logic that would underpin the territorial boundaries. This, as some of the cases illustrate, can cause numerous problems for the viability of these polities and cement ethnicity as the only criterion defining political membership as well as rights in the long run. A few cases of multi-ethnic polities still exist but these are exceptions rather than the rule. 

 

 

This is an extended summary of a longer paper that was originally published in the CITSEE Working Paper Series and is available for download here

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