Strategies of symbolic nation-building in West Balkan states: intents and results (completed)
The National Museum, Tirana
About the project
The creation of national identities in the Western Balkan states is still a “work in progress”. How, and to what extent, do the citizens of these states respond to their political leaderships’ attempts to create, co-opt or stimulate symbolic interpretations of the past?
Objectives
The objective of this project is to determine the strategies, strength and effectiveness of symbolic nation-building in the Western Balkans.
In a first step the variations of nation-building activities was mapped in Albania and the new states in the former Yugoslavia, using existing sources of information and data.
In a second step the impact of the various nation-building strategies was measured and compared using new survey data.
Outcomes
Surveys were carried out in Croatia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Montenegro, Serbia, Macedonia, Kosovo and Albania in the second half of 2011, click on the links below to see the results:
Below link to the fiiles in SAV-format:
We encourage the use of the survey results! Please credit the project in all articles / writings.
A volume presenting the findings of the Project was published on Ashgate, and published in Albanian as: Kombformimi simbolik në Evropën juglindore (2013) Prishtinë: Qendra për Hulumtime dhe Politikë Gjinore.
To present the results of the project there was a conference at the University of Rijeka 9-10 May 2014. Scolars and graduate students were invited to submit papers (by 1 February 2014).
More information about the conference can be found here.
Background
For further information about the project consult this document.
Financing
The project was supported by the Norwegian Research Council.
Cooperation
The project wass a joint undertaking by the Department of Literature, Area Studies and European Languages of the University of Oslo and the Department of Culture studies, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Rijeka.
The Political Science Research Centre in Zagreb assisted with work on the surveys. The market research firm IPSOS is contracted to carry out the surveys.
An additional eight scholars from Bosnia-Herzegovina, Montenegro, Serbia, Macedonia and Kosovo participated in the project. Click here for full list of participants.