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THE ATTITUDE OF THE FAR-RIGHT ORGANIZATIONS IN SERBIA TOWARDS THE RELATION BETWEEN LANGUAGE AND NATIONAL IDENTITY

Author(s): Vladan Pavlović / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2012

The paper presents several standpoints dealing with the relation between language and national identity adopted by the organizations typically labelled far-right in the Serbian society. Based on a research of the internet sites of those organizations, some of the standpoints examined are the following ones: a) that language, nation and the national state are tightly intertwined (one national language – one nation – one national state), b) that language and ethno-national consciousness are also closely connected (i.e. that ethno-national consciousness cannot develop without the existence of a national language), c) that children should not be taught foreign languages before they have mastered their mother tongue, and similar ones. Each of such standpoints is then approached from the perspective of linguistic theory, which not only undermines the validity of such attitudes from a scientific point of view, but also offers such an alternative to the given standpoints that affirms tolerance, the culture of peace and better understanding among members of different nations and the languages they speak.

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NATIONAL AND CULTURAL IDENTITY WITHIN THE EUROPEAN UNION

Author(s): Ilija Aceski / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2012

In this paper the author poses several questions which profoundly tackle the essence of the EU functioning in the circumstances of multitude of national identities which are of exclusive nature. In such case of exclusive identities the question of feasibility of Europe is implied. Furthermore, is the search for the European identity oriented towards something which at one point, long ago existed and which has disappeared and has been forgotten, but is to be discovered today, similarly to the way it has been done or is done in the formation of the distinctive national identities? To which degree can the European identity be founded on the diversity of the European nations’ cultures, an issue that eurosceptics deem impossible? Is there an existence of European culture, and by that, an existence of European cultural identity? Can the culture be considered as the “glue” for the European Integration? What is more, can there be a European identity if the same is only “on civil basis” relying on a social agreement, and not on “cultural basis rested on common tradition”? This paper gives an analysis of several aspects which approach the phenomenon of national identity within EU and the possibilities for founding one common European identity from different perspectives.

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IDENTITY CONSTRUCTIONS. THE CASE OF HUNGARIAN AND ROMANIAN STUDENTS FROM “BABEŞ-BOLYAI” UNIVERSITY, ROMANIA

Author(s): Irina Postolache / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2012

This article offers an anthropological analysis of how identities are constructed in the Transylvanian case, and more precisely at the “Babeş-Bolyai” University, between the Romanian and the Hungarian students. Firstly, I will try to find a proper definition for identity because as there are so many meanings or, on the contrary, not enough, we could arrive at a so called “identity” crisis (Brubacker, Junqua, 2001). Secondly, I will use the constructivist approach to analyze the ways in which identities of Romanian and Hungarian students are constructed within the frame of the “Babeş-Bolyai” University, and out of it, taking into account three factors: Time (Memory and History), Space and Language.

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IDENTITY CHANGES IN THE GLOBALIZATION ERA

Author(s): Jonuz Abdullai,Kujtim Ramadani / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2012

In contemporary systems, there is a prevailing conscience that the society as a whole is dynamic and no static and that it undergoes permanent changes during its stages of development. Within the course of these changes, the process of globalization emerged, through which economies, societies, cultures and even linguistic communities get integrated by means of communication, transport and trade. Social, economic, and political bonds that surpass the borders among countries determinately condition the fate of all those living in those countries. We will see that, according to many authors, such as A. Giddens, the globalization of social relations should be understood first of all as a system of time and space in our social lives. It is not a new process; contrariwise, it dates back some centuries ago when the impact of the west began to spread all over the world. The globalization process did not happen smoothly and unnoticeably – from the very beginning it was associated with inequality among different regions and countries in the world, by emphasizing the importance of the creation of societies in Third World countries. Some of the challenges Europe has to face with include all the developed countries. The others have to do with the European situation – especially with the elimination of soviet-type societies in Eastern Europe. We should not think that the EU represents just a magnified version of what it actually was before 1989. With its borders open to the east, and consequently, to the south, the EU identity cannot remain unchanged. The social identity changes depend on several factors, including the technological, economic, political and cultural ones. Some authors, like Dominique Moïsi, say that Europe and the USA have been gripped by the fear “of the others” and by the fear of loss of identity and national interests. But, according to him, the world today has the greatest possibilities to be rebuilt on the grounds of the “clash of emotions”, unlike the ideas presented by Samuel Huntington according to whom we are living in a world divided by cultural diversities, national interests, and political ideologies. We will also present parts of our scientific research called “students’ approaches and attitudes towards global and religious movements” carried out with students from the Southeast European University.

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THE INFLUENCE OF REGIONAL ECONOMIC INTEGRATION IN THE DEVOLOPMENT OF GLOBALIZATION

Author(s): Nasir Selimi / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2012

Regional economic integration is an agreement on cooperation in the economic sphere between two or more states. When we say economic cooperation activities, we mean all forms of economic activities and ways that the member countries can achieve. Lately in the framework of this cooperation there is an expansion and deepening of a large number of shapes and economic activities. Within these economic activities we distinguish the following: the trade of member countries, the flow of foreign direct investments, services in various fields, the system of standards and intellectual property standards, giving and receiving credit, franshizm, licensing, harmonization of trade policies, tax harmonization, strategic alliances and joint ventures, the harmonization of legislative policy, international rules, etc. The Regional economic integration is organized at different levels. Each level is distinguished from each other, the level of the highest ranking includes something more than the previous one. In general term, these regional economic integration levels are known as: free trade area, customs union, the common market, economic union and political union. The main reasons why countries are grouped in the REI are two: economic nature and political nature. Liberalization of international trade and development is one of the main determinants of globalization. Almost all economists agree that the economic growth of countries depends on opening oftheir national economy to the global economy.

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GLOBALIZATION – A PROCESS OR PROJECT FOR HOMOGENIZATION OF THE WORLD

Author(s): Jorde Jakimovski / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2012

In the first years of the new millennium the domination of societies and economies based on the grounds of knowledge, which participate in the global markets is more and more common, as a consequence of the tendency of the organization and mobility of the business activities, knowledge and capital, as well as the liberalization and simplification of the foreign trade relations among countries. The globalization allows the economic subjects appearance on the global market, by usage of local as well as other available resources. Information systems and telecommunications give new physionomy of the world market, enabling the organizations to identify the specific needs of the consumers from different geographical regions in the world and to react quickly by diversification of products and services. Thus, the traditional advantage of the producers which are geographically closer to consumers is significantly reduced. Telecommunications also allow designing of the world electronic markets, where consumers and suppliers come in direct contact. Thus, the need of presence of classical intermediaries is lost, but of course there is the need for new ones. However, there is the question of whether the global market creates irresponsibility, because it presents interpersonal institutional infrastructure which does not take responsibility not even for itself. The global market risk allows to determine which, if there are any, to prosper, and which to suffer.

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GLOBALIZATION AND THE LANGUAGE - special review on the Republic of Macedonia -

Author(s): Marija Drakulovska-Čukalevska / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2012

In this study we tend to place the issue of globalization and the language in the Republic of Macedonia in a sociological context. For that purpose, the research was focused on assessing the opinion of the citizens of the Republic of Macedonia on the presence of public signboards and company names in the Republic of Macedonia written in a foreign language; the problems related to the understanding of the meaning of the public signboards and company names written in a foreign language, as well as their opinion on the appearance of the public signboards and company names written in a foreign language.

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EMBODIED ‘ETHNICITY’ AND INFORMAL SANCTIONING MECHANISMS: SANCTIONING OF EMBODIED MACEDONIANNESS IN AUSTRALIA

Author(s): Irena Veljanova / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2012

Over two decades ago, G. Carter Bentley recognised the fact that up until that time, not one of the discussions on ethno-identity had explained ‘how people come to recognise their commonalities in the first place’; that is, how ‘symbolic construal of sensations of likeness and difference’ (Bentley, 1987: 27) may be accounted for. Building on Bourdieu’s Theory of Practice (formulated in Bourdieu’s Outline of a Theory of Practice (1977)), Bentley developed an approach which came to be known as the Practice Theory of Ethnicity. The proponents of this approach (Bentley 1987, 1991; Eriksen 1991, 1992, 1993; Dunn, 2005, 2009) have performance (practice) at the core of the construction of collective ethno-identities in common. A recent study by Veljanova (2010), which investigated how the emic quality of Macedonianness developed in Australia, indicated the strong relevance of the practice (performance) theory of ethnicity. As Veljanova suggests, ‘practice is considered at the core of Macedonianness in Australia; in other words, it is an enacted Macedonianness’ (2010: 78). It may be argued that a long-standing challenge to the distinctness of anything imagined as ethno- Macedonian, that is, the substance of enacted and imagined Macedonian-ness, when internalised, poses a threat to a people’s collective existence; as a result, tacit and strategic ‘defensive’ mechanisms are developed and redeveloped. Drawing on the results of Veljanova’s study (Veljanova, 2006-2010), this paper focuses upon (1) whether the survey respondents (N=764 valid survey responses) believed (or did not believe) in functional informal sanctioning mechanisms; and, (2) the informal sanctioning mechanisms that operate within the Macedonian ethno-community in Australia in the ‘service’ of ethno-cultural continuity. Apropos of the former (1), the study indicated that out of 764 valid survey responses, 36.1% of interviewees believe in their existence, 30.8% do not believe in their existence, and 32.7% are undecided. As regards the latter (2), drawing on the findings of the study, and with particular focus on Macedonian cuisine as an embodied Macedonian-ness, the following informal sanctioning mechanisms will be discussed: gossip, ostracism, loss of respect, unwelcomeness and loss of support.

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GLOBALIZATION, IDENTITY, CULTRAL IDENTITY AND MACEDONIA IN THAT MATTER

Author(s): Eleonora Stojkova / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2012

Today identity is placed under question mark, but why? Globalization and Europeanization are questioning identity, but again why? In light of these changes the paper aims to place the question of the identity vis-a-vis globalization and Europeanization and tries to identify and explain the consequences of globalization and cultural imperialism for the cultural identity of Macedonia. Additionally, the paper explores the sociological dimension of the aforementioned phenomena.

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RELIGION AND NATIONAL IDENTITY IN MONO-CONFESSIONA AND MULTI-CONFESSIONAL COUNTRIES IN EUROPE AND IN THE BALKANS

Author(s): Ružica Cacanovska,Nonka Bogomilova / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2012

In this paper, the authors will firstly analyze the different places and role of religion in relation to national identity, subject to the prevalence of one or more religions. Secondly, in this context the authors will pay due attention to the role of religion in relation to the historically shaped either strong or weak connection developed between religion and the ethnos. Based on the analysis of the available empirical material, the authors will draw conclusions on the ambivalent potential of religion regarding national identity, depending on the combination of both of the abovementioned factors. The conclusion remarks will be illustrated by two case studies, of Macedonia and Bulgaria in order to notice and to elaborate the specificities and similarities of the basic topic of this paper.

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RE-THINKING THE IDENTITIES - THE MEDITERRANEAN

Author(s): Antoanela Petkovska / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2012

Identity is defined as a concept that takes into consideration the issues of the complete entirety of the accepted and marked practices, beliefs and commonly focused continuity in time and space. Cultural identity helps us recognise and “describe” ourselves in our own distinctiveness in regard to the manner of existence of the “others”. The contemporary identity policies (including the one of Western Europe) serve the demonstration of power that manipulates, labels and discriminates even when it advocates equality of the identities. In the overall discourse of its stratified and controversial existence through centuries, the Mediterranean, the South and its civilisation circle is a victim of such policies that create stereotypes, divide and assess its quality through the arrogance of wealth and the order of civic culture.

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MACEDONIA’S FOREIGN POLICY IN THE CONTEXT OF EU INTEGRATION: Superficial changes or soul-deep transformation?

Author(s): Florent Marciacq / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2012

This paper enquires into the Europeanisation of Macedonia’s foreign policy. First, it examines the extent to which Macedonia’s foreign policy positions in the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) and Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) OSCE have become convergent with the preferences of the European Union (EU). Then, it investigates specific changes in the organisation of Macedonia’s diplomatic services, which can be traced back to Macedonia’s interactions with the EU. These preliminary findings contradict the traditional view considering that states’ foreign policy is impervious to exogenous change. They suggest that Macedonia’s foreign policy identity is being re-constructed through its interactions with the EU. To establish this, the paper examines the mechanisms that best explain Macedonia’s behavioural and organisational changes. It argues that these are predominantly driven by soul-deep mechanisms of social, contextual learning; that simple, organismic learning also plays a role; and that the significance of superficial, mechanistic learning, i.e. mere compliance, is often overestimated.

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THE IMPACT OF THE CONTROVERSY AROUND THE IDENTITY OF THE RUDARI PEOPLE FROM A ROMANIAN VILLAGE UPON LOCAL SOCIAL LIFE

Author(s): Angela Costescu / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2012

In a Romanian village, the majority, represented by Romanians, live together with the Rudari, people without a homogeneous group identity (some groups declare themselves as being Romanians, like in the case of the community I researched, others as being Roma/Gypsy persons). At local level, between Romanians and Rudari people seem to be no tensions, but, despite this first feeling, there are daily life practices which prove the separation between the two groups (for example, the avoidance of commensalism, of exogamy, or of burial in the same part of the cemetery). The main responsibility for all these separations is the Rudari’s dark skin, the Romanians avoiding to become close with a person who has a physical appearance similar to the one of the Roma/Gypsy people. More precisely, the last category of people has a darker skin, even though there are some exceptions. In those extreme situations mentioned above, a Rudari becomes a Gypsy person in the Romanians’ point of view. The skin color, in the case of Rudari, is a first element that can justify the tendency of the local population, observed in certain situations, of integrating the group of Rudari into the big category of Roma/Gypsy population. At the common sense level, people operate with this kind of appreciations. The Rudari come to be “perceived” as belonging to the same community with Gypsy, and for this reason are exposed, many times, to social exclusion.

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BUSINESS PRACTICES AND IDENTITY

Author(s): Galina Koleva / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2012

Globalization is stimulating research in the field of cultural adaptivity and tolerance, behavioural models that broaden the range of cultural diversity, overcoming stereotypes, and changes in identity. Cultural identification and its projections in individual behaviour on the one hand, and the effect of the application and adaptation of other people’s experience and business models on the other, shape the adjustments and the strategies of the social participants. An important role is played here by the systems of behaviour and mutual relations, cultural rules and symbolic codes. In this sense, culture and what has been inherited are transformed into an important instrument for social dynamics and are oriented towards the search for new resources for development. The aim of the paper is to discuss aspects of this thesis, providing specific examples and also to present an analysis of behavioural adaptations, motivations and models shared by the economic participants in two areas of business practices – a) practices in the “grey” economy and b) the practices of agricultural producers in the use of land.

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GLOBALIZATION AND THE METAMORPHOSIS OF IDENTITY/Globalization and the ’’Fate“ of National Identities

Author(s): Ljubiša R. Mitrović / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2012

The paper analyzes the cultural aspects of globalization in the contemporary world, as a new form of acculturation, interrelation and metamorphosis of national cultures and identities. It especially focuses on the research of the changes in the national and regional identity in the context of European integrations in the Balkans, the relation between national and European identity, as well as the ’’fate“ of national identities of small nations in the conditions of globalization. Starting form the hypothesis that the geocultural paradigm plays an important role in the understanding the current and future transformation processes of personal and collective identities in the global age, the paper addresses the given topic by combining results of the relevant contemporary theroetical and empirical research. Thereby, it pays special attention to the Balkans and the sociological research carried out (in Serbia, Macedonia and Bulgaria) by the Institute for Sociology at the Faculty of Philosophy in Niš, within the macro project entitled ’’The Culture of Peace, Identities and Interethnic Relations in Serbia and in the Balkans in the Euro integration Processes“ (2006/2010).

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GLOBALIZATION AND HYBRIDIZATION OF CULTURE

Author(s): Gjorgje Mladenovski / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2012

In this paper, we give a detailed analysis of the concepts of globalization and cultural hybridization, as well as the concept of creolization, and their relevance for understanding the contemporary culture. Despite criticism and skepticism concerning the value of the concept of globalization that have appeared as a result of a “post-global turn” that were provoked by 9/11 events, most authors argue that globalization is essential to understanding the contemporary epoch. As for globalization of culture, it is argued that globalizing forces did not inevitably lead to uniform global culture. They brought local cultural patterns closer to the “imagined” global culture but at the same time. They have promoted greater cultural heterogeneity. The process of hybridization further contributes to continuing cultural heterogeneity. In the paper, we discuss in more detail the concepts of cultural hybridization as well as of creolization.

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TOWARDS A EUROPEAN IDENTITY: THE ROLE OF THE NATIONAL HISTORIOGRAFIES IN THE CREATION OF BALKAN MYTHS

Author(s): Jovan Ananiev,Strashko Stojanovski / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2012

The rise of the nation and the promotion of national ideology have a key role in the redefinition of the Balkan identities. The new era of modernity is actually offering brand new standards for the definition of Otherness which is a precondition for the construction of the borders among the groups. During the imperial era, the communities were building the vision of the world through religious systems and their obeying as universal criteria. The new conditions of the market economy and citizenship offered the new national state as the only alternative, along with the nationalism, as an accompanying ideology. However, in order to homogenize the future national entities, it is necessary to create criteria for ethnicity that would be able to create a unique ethical awareness or expulsion on the basis of the so-called mutual collective memory, regardless of the territorial bases or the linguistic-cultural distinctions. Therefore, even during the 19th century the proto-national intelligence would accelerate, establishing the ethnical boundaries, pursuant the myth of the origin and the durability of the discrepancies. This would become an eternal task of the social engineering, as well as a task for the creators who shaped the framework of the Balkan historiographies. The challenges for the collective identity in the Balkans and the rest of Europe are approaching slowly, but surely. Simultaneously with the new mainstream of the political and economical integration of the Balkan countries into the European Union, the legal framework for the direct mutual communication and collaboration is being created. This threat is, at the same time, diffuse, uncertain and silent. It is not only an outcome of the external threats of the international terrorism which actually crystallize and strengthens the community as destined.

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THE DEVELOPMENT OF IDENTITIES AMONG THE MUSLIM POPULATION IN THE BALKANS IN AN ERA OF GLOBALIZATION AND EUROPEANIZATION: CASES OF TORBESHI, GORANI

Author(s): Rubin Zemon / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2012

During the Ottoman Empire as a theocratic state, ethnic identities and the ethnic belonging of people were not important vs. the religious identity and determination. The ethnic identity lost its importance in the Ottoman Empire and religious identity was given priority with the aim that all Muslim people belong to one Muslim community. At the end of the XXVIII and beginning of the XIX centuries, the process of the development of modern nations began among the various nationalities in the Balkans. The millet system, with its classification based on religion, became increasingly less viable. A process known as the National Revival was and is much more intensive among the Christian population than among the Muslims. The processes of development and construction of national identities in the Balkan states mainly follow the primordial way, which as a consequence has social antagonisms on a religious base among the people, presented as ethnic conflicts. The development of identities among the Muslims in the Balkan states at the end of the XX and beginning of XXI century is an issue that has very deep social, cultural, economic and political consequences and in various Balkan states we could see various context, circumstances, state strategies and polices. Ethnic and national identities among Muslims in the Balkans are very changeable.

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POLITICAL IDENTITIES IN THE REPUBLIC OF MACEDONIA

Author(s): Lidija Hristova Petkovska / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2012

Political identities in one society are undoubtedly related to political parties, the social cleavages that these parties are structured on, i.e. their ideological (political) profiling. Can we talk about political identities when depolitization, departization and floating voters have become the most significant characteristic of contemporary political life? If these tendencies can be recognized in established democracies, do they and how do they pour into or are recognized in the so-called postcommunist societies, one of which is Republic of Macedonia itself? The additional challenge for the research team was to examine this issue in the specific political environment in Macedonia, which is represented by strong political confrontations on the political scene, confrontations that oftentimes interfered with normal political dialogue. The main goal of the research project was to determine the different political identities in the Republic of Macedonia, to see on which social cleavages they are differentiated on and where are their positions on an imagined ideological spectrum. Or to put it differently, whether the strictly distinguished political confrontations represent one dichotomous, i.e. segmented political structure, soundly founded on the social cleavages of the Macedonian society. We’ve tried to do that by: analysis of the social affiliation of citizens, analysis of their party affiliation and analysis of a certain number of political attitudes and values that they’ve accepted. We started from the basic assumption that if these three elements are related then we can say that the party-political divisions are founded on social divisions and that the high political polarization in Macedonia is based on the existence of differentiated social profiles of citizens, who belong to different and strongly confronted cultures/poles.

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“EUROPEANIZATION” OF THE MACEDONIAN NATIONAL IDENTITY

Author(s): Stojan Slaveski / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2012

The subject of discussion in this paper is national identity and the question is whether national identity is a form of identity that can sustain a political community of the state and/or a union of states. The effectiveness of a political community, whether the nation, the state or the European Union, relies on the legitimacy derived from its members. We are in the realm of collective identities and particularly cultural identity that brings this discussion about new forms of identity in contemporary Europe into the area of nationalism studies. European identity, at this stage in history cannot be cultural, for culture being historically constructed is too contested. “Europeanization” means a construction of a new collective identity, a new understanding of identity and its dissociation from the ethnically dominated territory of the nation-state. With this in mind, this article turns to concepts of identity as the term is employed in national discourses and argues that political integration of culturally diverse communities requires a form of identity beyond the boundaries of standard vocabulary of nationalism even in its civic form. This study is supported by the case of the Republic of Macedonia on two matters, Macedonian-Albanian relationships in the country and the relation between Macedonia and Greece on the “name issue” in order to draw implications for “Europeanization” of the Macedonian national identity.

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