Culture And Reconciliation In Southeastern Europe

This volume draws together scholarship across a number of disciplines – history, sociology, media and cultural studies, political science, Slavonic Studies – to examine the significance of the sport of football within Southeastern Europe, with an especial focus on countries of the former Yugoslavia. The volume is timely as there is growing recognition inside and beyond the academy that football is a key cultural site in which the tensions within the region have and continue to be reflected. Important issues such as resurgent nationalism, ethno/religious identity construction, and collective masculine identity are played out in relation to the sport of football. The papers within the volume explore these and other themes in detailed case studies that will be of interest to academics and policy makers concerned with wanting to know more about how football should be considered within agendas focused on reconciliation and a socially inclusive future. This book was published as a special issue of Sport in Society.

Considering the enormous problems of the Balkans during the 1990s, the experts who contributed to this study believe that there are solutions to the seemingly intractable situation and the legacy of the disintegration of the former Soviet Union.

This book considers the sensitive heritage elements linked to the very issue of the origins of nations. Beliefs, rituals, and traditional knowledge are examples of intangible cultural heritage (ICH), which communities globally regard as the core of their cultural identity. When it is unclear which element of heritage “belongs” to whom, like in the Western Balkans, where the majority of heritage elements are shared, ICH disputes exacerbate conflict. Its mishandling is especially acute when minority heritage is excluded from governmental cultural policies. With a focus on Serbia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Montenegro, this book has a global thematic scope, theoretical depth, and policy relevance to the scholars of anthropology and heritage studies as well as to those interested in cultural diversity, human rights, and cultural and educational policies. It will serve as a guide for those who professionally use cultural heritage, or want to start doing so, in the processes of reconciliation, stabilization, and development.

This book explores how school history textbooks are used to perpetuate nationalistic policies within divided regions. Exploring the ‘divide and rule’ politics across ex-Yugoslav successor states, the editors and contributors draw upon a wide range of case studies from across the region. Textbooks and other educational media provide the foundations upon which the new generation build understanding about their own context and the events that are creating their present. By promoting nationalistic politics in such media, textbooks themselves can be used as tools to further promote and preserve ongoing hostility between ethnic groups following periods of conflict. This edited collection will appeal to scholars of educational media, history education and post-conflict societies.

The term 'Yugoslav Wars' (or, often, 'the Balkan conflict') refers to a series of wars in the region of former Yugoslavia, which were associated with the break-up of that state. The Yugoslav Wars resulted in an unimaginable number of dead, injured and displaced people. They also had a devastating impact on the economy and on the environment. Most notably, in some of the states which emerged from the conflict, people still to this day cannot peacefully coexist with one another. Beyond the affected region itself, the military conflict also had significant implications for Europe and its member states. It destroyed the illusion that Europe had overcome war. Perhaps these recent wars have given Europe an impetus to draw lessons from them, to find out what really needs to be done to build a peaceful Europe. A particular characteristic of this publication is that it does not settle for a single precise analysis of the reasons for war and for post-war conflicts. Rather, peace efforts and peace treaties are analyzed by focusing on their function of preventing conflicts or reducing their extent. Emphasis is placed on the efforts of national actors as well as on those of actors in civil society to promote peace policies in the international sphere. This collection of articles might, for the first time, clearly display the political challenges of peace in the context of the collapse of Yugoslavia and its subsequent wars. It certainly seeks to illustrate what has been learned and what still needs to be learned for the future.

Where nostalgia was once dismissed a wistful dream of a never-never land, the academic focus has shifted to how pieces of the past are assembled as the elements in alternative political thinking as well as in artistic expression. The creative use of the past points to the complexities of the conceptualization of nostalgia, while entering areas where the humanities meet the art world and commerce. This collection of essays shows how this bond is politically and socially visible on different levels, from states to local communities, along with creative developments in art, literature and religious practice. Bringing together scholars from a range of disciplines, the book offers analyses from diverse theoretical perspectives, united by an interest in the political and cultural representations of the past in South-East Europe from a long-term perspective. By emphasising how the relationship between loss and creative inspiration are intertwined in cultural production and history writing, these essays cover themes across South-East Europe and provide an insight into how specific agents – intellectuals, politicians, artists – have represented the past and have looked towards the future.

"This book considers the sensitive heritage elements linked to the very issue of the origins of nations. Beliefs, rituals, and traditional knowledge are examples of intangible cultural heritage (ICH), which communities globally regard as the core of their cultural identity. When it is unclear which element of heritage 'belong' to whom, like in the Western Balkans, where majority of heritage elements is shared, ICH disputes exacerbate conflict. Its mishandling is especially acute when minority heritage is excluded from governmental cultural policies. With a focus on Serbia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Montenegro, this book has a global thematic scope, theoretical depth, and policy relevance to anthropology and heritage studies scholars, as well as those interested in cultural diversity, human rights, and cultural and educational policies. It will serve as a guide for those who professionally use cultural heritage, or want to start doing so, in the processes of reconciliation, stabilization and development"--