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.