identity

When counting counts. The Bosnian Census

Florian Bieber
Bosnian census

Nobody knows how many people live in Bosnia. The numbers given suggest around 3.8 million, but these are at best estimates. As a result, one does not really know that GDP per capita and other crucial data cannot be determined without the population size. In addition, the specific numbers across the country might correct some misconceptions. Generally speaking, one would except a trend in urbanisation as a result of the war and the post-war period as poor rural areas have been abandoned. Yet the cities might have not grown as much as some expect. 

This piece originally appeared in the authors personal blog.

Urban struggles: Activist citizenship in South-East Europe I

Ljubica Spaskovska
Skopje 2014

Regardless of the context-specific background of Skopje’s urban battles, there is a trans-national story of urban activism to be told, from Istanbul to London, in particular targeting undemocratic practices of usurpation of public/green spaces either by authoritarian leaders or private investors. A wave of neo-conservative politics, tendencies of desecularization, corruption, control over media and growing social and economic gaps actually form the background of public discontent, creative activism and urban sociality and cross-ethnic solidarity. Mapping a new historical narrative onto the capital’s face has come at the cost of hundreds of millions of Euros of public money (official figures are at 208 million) and without a wider public debate and transparent decision-making. Political elites seem to willingly overlook the fact that “the past cannot give us what the future has failed to deliver”.

The Battle for Skopje – urban citizenship and the legacy of the past

People make cities, but cities make citizens.

Richard Rogers

CITSEE studies on “Citizenship after Yugoslavia” published by Routledge

citsee book

This book is the first comprehensive examination of the citizenship regimes of the new states that emerged out of the break up of Yugoslavia. It covers both the states that emerged out of the initial disintegration across 1991 and 1992 (Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and Macedonia), as well as those that have been formed recently through subsequent partitions (Serbia, Montenegro and Kosovo).

CITSEE is pleased to announce that Routledge has recently published the volume “Citizenship after Yugoslavia” edited by Jo Shaw and Igor Štiks

What’s sexuality got to do with it? On sexual citizenship

Katja Kahlina
LGBT Pride

Although accommodating some positive changes, sexual citizenship continues to generate further exclusions. In addition to leaving different sexual practices and relations that do not comply with the new normativity out, the newly achieved gay rights are increasingly becoming a marker of “civility” and “superiority” that, together with women’s rights, serve as a means through which discrimination of migrants and military attacks are justified in the context of the “war on terror” after 9/11.

“[…] despite the imperatives of globalization and transnationalism, citizenship continues to be anchored in the nation, and the nation remains heterosexualized.”
(Bell and Binnie, 2000, p. 26)

‘What’s in a name?’ The Dilemmas of Re-Naming Yugoslav Gypsies into Roma

Julija Sardelić
8th of April

In today’s post-Yugoslav sphere, many young Romani intellectuals are proud of their Romani heritage. Although they encounter many obstacles due to discrimination, they fully identify with the term ‘Roma’. However, most Roma still find themselves on the margins of their societies. Whilst they sometimes refer to themselves as Roma, in other instances as gypsies, others use alternative group names such as Egyptians and Ashkali (the latter especially in Kosovo). 

It was the spring of 1970 when the 18-year-old Ludvik Levačić was conscripted into the Yugoslav People’s Army (JNA) to perform his compulsory 18-month military service with his fellow male Yugoslav citizens. He vividly remembers his first day, when an officer wrote in his army ID booklet that he was of Slovenian nationality (nacionalnost).

Sportizenship: the complex links between citizenship, sports and national identity

Jelena Dzankic
Citizenship and sports

Sport is not only a manifestation of a physical contest. It is also a manifestation of cultural and national elements of a society. National sporting contests are often said to instil a sense of community in a state. By attending and supporting different sporting events, people reinforce the identity dimension of citizenship. Supporting a team emphasises an individual’s link to his or her polity, be it a city, a sub-state entity or a country.

With the Olympic buzz in the air, I often come to think about states, and flags, and the feelings that the exercise of physical competition inspires. Over the thirty years of my Yugoslav and post-Yugoslav life those states, flags and feelings have changed. Many times. I remember when at the Olympics I cheered the country whose tricolour flag had a big red star in the middle.

The view from Union Street: from Yugoslavia to the European Union

Aleš Debeljak
Reflections

The name of my home street does not simply denote a generic union, a bond that ties together “more than one” entity. Its primary meaning continues to evoke Yugoslavia, the political union of Southern Slavs (except Bulgarians), the union that emerged out of the ashes of the Austro-Hungarian empire in 1918, and collapsed in the flames of the disintegrating Yugoslav federation in 1991. Recall: Yugoslavia was a political community that was explicitly established as a trans-national union of states/republics. For the last two decades, Slovenians have lived in an independent state, one that six years ago willingly joined another super-national Union.

Nomen est omen. How could I then fail to detect a suggestive and troubled connotation of the name of my street? Zvezna ulica orUnion Street, is a generous place for my family of five. It’s a dead-end street, though.

Macedonian Citizen: ‘Former Yugoslav’, Future European?

Ljubica Spaskovska
Old train station in Skopje

Citizenship in the former Yugoslav and the Macedonian context is yet to have its dimensions of status, rights and equality strengthened and its dimension of membership/belonging weakened in importance.

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.

Montenegrin mists: politics, citizenship and identity

Jelena Džankić
The Millenium Bridge in Podgorica

Citizenship policies in Montenegro over last twenty years were a peculiar variant of the post-Yugoslav model, in that citizenship was not used as a mechanism of ethnic homogenisation but instead of political manoeuvring. As a result, citizenship policies in Montenegro bore many traits of the changing political environment in which they were adopted; the environment framed through the processes of state and nation building. 

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.

Kosovo: between a ‘political club’ and a ‘divided house'

Gëzim Krasniqi
A motive from Pristina

Citizenship has been a central issue in Kosovo’s state-building agenda, which aims to serve as a link between a war-torn community of people and a new polity based on principles of equality and all inclusiveness, and as a tool of political integration within the new political entity, which aims at replacing ethnic, religious and social divisions.

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.

Syndicate content