balkan folklore

Edited by Marko Čeperković and Florence Gaub. Contributions from Donika Emini, Zoran Nechev and Isidora Stakić

What will the Western Balkans look like in 2025? Will we witness Republika Srpska declare independence, a worsening of relations between Kosovo and Serbia, and the rise of ethnic tensions across the region – or will we celebrate Montenegro and Serbia joining the EU? This paper presents three contrasting scenarios for the horizon of 2025. (Read more…)

Poturčenjaci

Monika Skrzeszewska

The Ottoman heritage is still perceptible in almost every social and cultural aspect in the Balkan Peninsula. One of the most significant Ottoman influence over that region is probably the confession of Islam. Some South Slavs converted to Islam under the authority of the Turkish Empire in the Balkans, therefore, Muslims, both ethnic Turks and Slavs, were denoted “Turks” (Turci) to show their connection with a regime based on the alien religion. (Read more…)

shohizinda-196893_1280

Galym Zhussipbek

What are the sources of interethnic and inter-communal tensions in Central Asia? This chapter illuminated one of these sources, namely, the processes of constructing exclusivist identities in Central Asian states. Built at the state level and below, these exclusivist identities engender inter-communal peace and also undermine efforts at regional cooperation and integration. (Read more…)

CNS Center for Nationalism Studies Balkan map

Benedict E. DeDominicis

This study focuses on trends in relationships between Serb and Bulgarian ethno-sectarian majorities and their respective, Muslim minorities within a dynamic international systemic context. (…) Serbian nationalism continues to suffer setbacks along with the post Cold War decline of intensity of Great Power willingness to support it as an ally in Southeastern Europe. (Read more…)

CNS Center for Nationalism Studies Analysis Taiwanese Nationalism

Simon Scott

As Taiwanese nationalism gains ascendancy over Chinese nationalism in Taiwanese society, Mainlanders are increasingly adopting a diasporic identity as Chinese in Taiwan. The labels and boundaries between ethnic groups are clearly related to the construction of a national identity on Taiwan; and need to be interrogated for the lessons they can teach us about the relationship between migration, decolonization, diasporas, and nationalism. (Read more…)

CNS Center for Nationalism Studies Analysis Banal Nationalism

Michael Skey

Billig’s major contribution is to identify the problem – a tendency to treat the nation as a given both in everyday life and social theory – and point towards its possible contours. Moreover, by exploring the everyday (re)production of national identity through banal signifiers, our attention is focused on the fact that it is generally the daily forms of life, lived in and understood in relation to a world of nations, that underpins the more visible (and sometimes virulent) aspects of nationalism. (Read more…)

CNS Nationalism Studies analysis Nationalism and Religious Prejudice heads

Hilmi M. Zawati

Religious affiliation emerged as a source of antagonism among the Yugoslav nations, particularly in Bosnia and Herzegovina, after WWII. There is no doubt that the conflicts in the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda had religious dimensions, and that religion was manipulated by religious leaders who had successfully used it to augment the feelings of religious nationalism and ancient hatreds among different ethnic entities. (Read more…)

Nationalism Studies analysis European Islam girl with teddy bear

Xavier Bougarel

A number of major socio-economic and cultural factors differentiate the Balkan Muslims from their fellow Muslims in the EU, including their commonality of language with other local non-Muslim populations. Also, the Balkan Muslims are part of a regional political context dominated by ethnic and religious nationalism. Confronted with the break-up of the Yugoslav Federation, the Balkan Muslims’ politicisation crystallised in distinct national and territorial claims. (Read more…)

CNS Center for Nationalism Studies analysis What is Nationalism

Miroslav Hroch

Why is having a positive relationship to one’s own nation nowadays always associated with the ‘extreme right’? The nation is a specifically European phenomenon, and one of the main reasons for this is that it originally took shape (and to the present day still exists) in two interrelated senses – or in other terms, on two interrelated levels: on the level of a large social community that exists in reality (it is a ‘sociological fact’) and on the level of an abstract community of (shared) cultural values. (Read more…)

Nationalism Studies analysis Minorities in England

Michael Skey

The significance of national forms of imagination and organisation has been increasingly questioned in an era of rapid globalisation. While theoretically stimulating, those who stress the importance of global mobility and sociability sometimes overlook what well-established, ‘‘thick’’ attachments to the nation offer to disparate individuals, notably in terms of anchoring subjectivity. (Read more…)

Nationalism Studies analysis Celtic

Michael Dietler

Appeals to an ancient Celtic past have played and continue to play a number of important and often paradoxical roles in the ideological naturalization of modem political communities at several contradictory levels, including: (1) pan-European unity in the context of the evolving European Community, (2) nationalism within member states of that community, and (3) regional resistance to nationalist hegemony. (Read more…)

balkan folklore

Edited by Marko Čeperković and Florence Gaub. Contributions from Donika Emini, Zoran Nechev and Isidora Stakić

What will the Western Balkans look like in 2025? Will we witness Republika Srpska declare independence, a worsening of relations between Kosovo and Serbia, and the rise of ethnic tensions across the region – or will we celebrate Montenegro and Serbia joining the EU? This paper presents three contrasting scenarios for the horizon of 2025. (Read more…)

Poturčenjaci

Monika Skrzeszewska

The Ottoman heritage is still perceptible in almost every social and cultural aspect in the Balkan Peninsula. One of the most significant Ottoman influence over that region is probably the confession of Islam. Some South Slavs converted to Islam under the authority of the Turkish Empire in the Balkans, therefore, Muslims, both ethnic Turks and Slavs, were denoted “Turks” (Turci) to show their connection with a regime based on the alien religion. (Read more…)

shohizinda-196893_1280

Galym Zhussipbek

What are the sources of interethnic and inter-communal tensions in Central Asia? This chapter illuminated one of these sources, namely, the processes of constructing exclusivist identities in Central Asian states. Built at the state level and below, these exclusivist identities engender inter-communal peace and also undermine efforts at regional cooperation and integration. (Read more…)

CNS Center for Nationalism Studies Balkan map

Benedict E. DeDominicis

This study focuses on trends in relationships between Serb and Bulgarian ethno-sectarian majorities and their respective, Muslim minorities within a dynamic international systemic context. (…) Serbian nationalism continues to suffer setbacks along with the post Cold War decline of intensity of Great Power willingness to support it as an ally in Southeastern Europe. (Read more…)

CNS Center for Nationalism Studies Analysis Taiwanese Nationalism

Simon Scott

As Taiwanese nationalism gains ascendancy over Chinese nationalism in Taiwanese society, Mainlanders are increasingly adopting a diasporic identity as Chinese in Taiwan. The labels and boundaries between ethnic groups are clearly related to the construction of a national identity on Taiwan; and need to be interrogated for the lessons they can teach us about the relationship between migration, decolonization, diasporas, and nationalism. (Read more…)

CNS Center for Nationalism Studies Analysis Banal Nationalism

Michael Skey

Billig’s major contribution is to identify the problem – a tendency to treat the nation as a given both in everyday life and social theory – and point towards its possible contours. Moreover, by exploring the everyday (re)production of national identity through banal signifiers, our attention is focused on the fact that it is generally the daily forms of life, lived in and understood in relation to a world of nations, that underpins the more visible (and sometimes virulent) aspects of nationalism. (Read more…)

CNS Nationalism Studies analysis Nationalism and Religious Prejudice heads

Hilmi M. Zawati

Religious affiliation emerged as a source of antagonism among the Yugoslav nations, particularly in Bosnia and Herzegovina, after WWII. There is no doubt that the conflicts in the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda had religious dimensions, and that religion was manipulated by religious leaders who had successfully used it to augment the feelings of religious nationalism and ancient hatreds among different ethnic entities. (Read more…)

Nationalism Studies analysis European Islam girl with teddy bear

Xavier Bougarel

A number of major socio-economic and cultural factors differentiate the Balkan Muslims from their fellow Muslims in the EU, including their commonality of language with other local non-Muslim populations. Also, the Balkan Muslims are part of a regional political context dominated by ethnic and religious nationalism. Confronted with the break-up of the Yugoslav Federation, the Balkan Muslims’ politicisation crystallised in distinct national and territorial claims. (Read more…)

CNS Center for Nationalism Studies analysis What is Nationalism

Miroslav Hroch

Why is having a positive relationship to one’s own nation nowadays always associated with the ‘extreme right’? The nation is a specifically European phenomenon, and one of the main reasons for this is that it originally took shape (and to the present day still exists) in two interrelated senses – or in other terms, on two interrelated levels: on the level of a large social community that exists in reality (it is a ‘sociological fact’) and on the level of an abstract community of (shared) cultural values. (Read more…)

Nationalism Studies analysis Minorities in England

Michael Skey

The significance of national forms of imagination and organisation has been increasingly questioned in an era of rapid globalisation. While theoretically stimulating, those who stress the importance of global mobility and sociability sometimes overlook what well-established, ‘‘thick’’ attachments to the nation offer to disparate individuals, notably in terms of anchoring subjectivity. (Read more…)

Nationalism Studies analysis Celtic

Michael Dietler

Appeals to an ancient Celtic past have played and continue to play a number of important and often paradoxical roles in the ideological naturalization of modem political communities at several contradictory levels, including: (1) pan-European unity in the context of the evolving European Community, (2) nationalism within member states of that community, and (3) regional resistance to nationalist hegemony. (Read more…)