Rapprochement as a Paradigm Shift: Does the Wheel Come Full Circle in Former Yugoslavia?
Rapprochement as a Paradigm Shift: Does the Wheel Come Full Circle in Former Yugoslavia?

Summary/Abstract: Abstract. Not only did Yugoslavia dissolve in an extremely violent way, its dissolution was accompanied by the emergence of a discourse that constructed the Yugoslav space as an artificial one. This discourse described Yugoslavia as a state that was created and led in a top-down fashion by undemocratic political elites. As a consequence, this discourse suggests, the people who lived in the Yugoslav state did not really want it. However, twenty years after the beginning of the break-up, and ten years after the end of the last military conflicts, we observe processes that indicate a new emergence of the space encompassing the territory of the former Yugoslavia. These processes are unique insofar as they have not been initiated by the political elites, but are being carried out – possibly for the first time since the end of the 19th century – from the bottom up. What is more, they are driven by the forces of profit and competitiveness. This article presents examples of these bottom-up processes to illustrate that, despite the traumatic experience of the fragmentation of Yugoslavia, people in the Yugoslav space have started to link once again. This rapprochment has neither been carried by a strong ideology nor pushed by an authoritarian state. Instead, it is based in a sense of a common culture, language, memory, and last but not least, shared expectations of potential economic profits.

• Details
• Contents