Mediterranean Research Meeting
The 11th was held near Florence (Italy). Mediterranean Research Meeting 24-27 March 2010 in which members of the Center for History, Democracy and Reconciliation participated.
Who's Who in the Balkans Today: Mythmaking and Identity Mutation, 1989-2009
“Who is who in the Balkans today: the creation of myths and mutation of identity, 1989-2009”, is a workshop, within the 11. of the Mediterranean Research Meeting. The workshop was led by: Vjekoslav Perica University of Rijeka, Croatia and Darko Gavrilović Singidunum University, Serbia.
Eleventh Mediterranean Research Conference, organized by the European University Institute (EUI) promoted the same values as CHDR: commitment to strengthening theoretical and empirical research and dialogue among academic circles, focusing on legal, historical, economic and socio-political issues, enabling young researchers to meet senior colleagues in an interactive environment and promoting further collaboration in research, encouraging the publication and dissemination of this research in edited collections.
The workshop “Who is who in the Balkans today: creation of myths and mutations of identity, 1989-2009” was based on the following assumptions: The “citizenship” of the heirs of the former Yugoslavia is mostly symbolic, that is, “discursive”; however, due to the fact that newly formed states have been continuously working on nation-building in the last two decades (states create nations, not the other way around), analyzes of newly created national identification should focus on identifying official national myths that are composed, imposed, and maintained by the state. Of course, such official myths are not without challenges, so the legitimacy of the state and the attractiveness of this type of citizenship are always threatened.
The workshop explored the following topics:
- (dis)continuity of myths of the former nation and comparison of old and new myths;
- new class structure, especially the so-called “criminal privatization” and the new poverty it led to;
- New national myths in the process of establishing new South Slavic states;
- regional, provincial, urban, rural, clan and similar identities that are consistent with or in conflict with the national;
- religious institutions as national co-founders and new religious myths embedded in national ideologies;
- migration, refugees and demographic changes;
- the role of ethnic diasporas, major historical controversies and conflicting appropriations and uses of certain historical figures, holy places, historical sites, symbols, etc.
