Градско общество и градска култура в Югоизточна Европа (Принос към дискусията за модернизацията)
Bourgeoisie and Bourgeois Culture in Southeast Europe (A contribution to the debate on modernization)

Summary/Abstract: In most studies of the European bourgeoisie and bourgeois culture Southeast Europe is conspicuously absent. However, bourgeois culture has great relevance for this region as it reached the Balkans in the late 19th c. as a powerful innovative impulse in combination with modernization and urbanization. The arising problems of modernization and of the development of urban bourgeois classes are usually attributed to the conservatism and "backwardness" of Balkan societies. The article attempts to outline — from an ethnological perspective — the basic features of Western bourgeois culture and the specifics of its (partial) appropriation in Southeast Europe. As a result of their historical experience, the strong urban-rural dichotomy, their social structure, and other legacies, the Balkan societies adopted bourgeois culture without having significant bourgeois classes, developing an ambivalent attitude characterized by both eager acceptance and fearful rejection. The result was a partial adoption of the material and behavioural side of bourgeois culture, while the essential mental and attitudinal aspects were largely ignored. This lack of mental embourgeoisement became even stronger when in the post-war period of rapid urbanization millions of villagers became "new urbanites" and contributed to the "reurbanization" of Balkan cities. In view of the proclaimed goal of building a "civil society", the inherent scepticism towards essential parts of (Western) bourgeois culture and the possible integration of indigenous values and norms into it have to be discussed openly to avoid conflicts of identity and other negative consequences.

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