SITUIRANA KSENOFOBIJA: OPASKA O GRAĐANSKOM PROTESTU U SRBIJI
XENOPHOBIA SITUATED: A NOTE ON THE CIVIC PROTEST IN SERBIA

Author(s): Đorđe Pavićević, Ivana Spasić
Subject(s): Politics / Political Sciences, Social Sciences, Nationalism Studies, Ethnic Minorities Studies
Published by: Foruma za etničke odnose
Summary/Abstract: Contrary to its widespread usage, „xenophobia" is here conceived of as a situated phenomenon, one social fact among others. Unlike the predominant understanding of xenophobia as referring to attitudes toward other ethnic and/or religious groups, and bearing an implicit negative connotation, the concept is here taken in its meaning as constructed within a single national community along the lines of political antagonisms, and is freed of its value content. The empirical case-study undertaken in this paper refers to a dramatic day during the civic protest in Serbia in December 1996, when two groups of demonstrators - those opposing and those supporting the regime - confronted each other and clashed in the streets of Belgrade. The response of the anti-regime demonstrators to this „symbolic assault" is described as a xenophobic one, showing indiscriminate hostility towards, and lack of willingness to communicate with, the pro-regime demonstrators. This sort of response, the authors claim, was psychologically understandable in the given context. Moreover, it was politically positive because it prevented the regime from realizing a series of symbolic strategics whereby the power of the protest would have been diminished. Relying on xenophobia, it is asserted, the protest participants kept their collective identity alive and made it possible for the protest to continue.

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