Divisions of the European continent into East and West, “Europe”
(EU) and “still-not-Europe” (candidate countries) and into “old” and
“new” Europe are often presented and perceived as pertinent and static.
Political discourses and practices significantly contribute to such
perception of this dividing line. The project aims to de-essentialize
these firm divisions, question their static and pertinent nature and
deconstruct the prevailing image of the Western Balkan societies as
passive and silent subjects. To do this it will look into discursive
and pictorial practices through which belonging to Europe is negotiated
and used in domains of politics, culture and everyday life in Austria,
Slovenia and societies of the Western Balkans. Analyses will focus on:
a) the public representations of the EU-enlargement process in Austria
and Slovenia in comparison to the ongoing negotiations with Western
Balkan countries – Croatia, Serbia and Bosnia in Herzegovina – to
provide better insight in the accompanying image politics, and
b) ideas, images and values related to Europe formed and negotiated in
the Western Balkan societies in the public space, in the “mental maps”
of social groups members as well as in cultural patterns and forms of
social organization in everyday life.