COMMUNICATION AS NECESSARY FACTOR OF A COLLECTIVE REMEMBRANCE OF THE COMMON LIFE ON EXAMPLE OF SERBS AND ALBANIANS IN KOSOVO AND METOHIJA Cover Image

КОМУНИКАЦИЈА КАО НУЖАН ФАКТОР КОЛЕКТИВНОГ СЕЋАЊА НА ЗАЈЕДНИЧКИ ЖИВОТ НА ПРИМЕРУ СРБА И АЛБАНАЦА НА КОСОВУ И МЕТОХИЈИ
COMMUNICATION AS NECESSARY FACTOR OF A COLLECTIVE REMEMBRANCE OF THE COMMON LIFE ON EXAMPLE OF SERBS AND ALBANIANS IN KOSOVO AND METOHIJA

Author(s): Aleksandra B. Šuvaković
Subject(s): Sociology of Culture
Published by: Матица српска
Keywords: Serbs; Albanians; linguistic barrier and ethnic distance; cultural memory; linguistic and educational state policy; Kosovo and Metohija

Summary/Abstract: Far-reaching consequences that linguistic policy may leave in the future decades are denoted in the paper, especially in regions where two nations with their differences interlace. After the World War II, it was enabled for the Albanians in the region of Kosovo and Metohija to get education entirely in their mother tongue, Albanian language, which simultaneously reduced the range of interactions with fellow citizens of Serbian nationality, the ability to understand each other, reducing also their professional possibilities. The years that followed only deepened the linguistic barrier between the two nations living in the same region, which inevitably led to constantly growing ethnic distance and escalation of conflicts. Empirical researches regarding the linguistic and ethnic distance between the Serbs and Albanians were conducted among Serbian students in Kosovska Mitrovica and Albanian students in Priština after a long time, in December 2016 and January 2017. An opinion poll in the field was implemented along with the representative sample, while Likert scale and modified Bogardus scale were used as instruments. The obtained results showed both the ignorance of the language of the other ethnic group and unwillingness to master that language, as an obstacle for communication. The results could be the guidelines for future state linguistic and educational policy in this region. Ethnic minorities have an indisputable right to foster their mother tongue and culture but necessarily must also master the language of the state whose territory they live on. On the other hand, the Serbian population also should get to know the language of fellow citizens – Albanians, primarily for establishing communication and better understanding, but also for improving the quality of life. Establishing such a linguistic policy would gradually remove linguistic barriers, leading to the reduction of ethnic distance. It would create also the presumptions for overcoming the “ethnic cultural memory” that deepens differences by its unilaterality, i.e. it would create conditions for the transmission of over-ethnic memory to a common life in the region where such life existed. It would represent the first condition for establishing a common “cultural memory”.

  • Issue Year: 2019
  • Issue No: 171
  • Page Range: 327-339
  • Page Count: 13
  • Language: Serbian
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