[ecrea] Cultural Studies and the Balkans in a Changing Europe - A Workshop in Cultural Studies

*Cultural Studies and the Balkans in a Changing Europe *

A Workshop in Cultural Studies

Faculty of Political Sciences, University of Belgrade, 10 May 2018

Featuring two panels by international scholars with different 
relationships to Balkan and post-Yugoslav societies, the workshop 
investigates how certain problems in cultural studies, such as identity, 
articulation, and popular culture might be useful to understand matters 
of belonging and communication in the light of current European 
developments, particularly in the Southeastern region. The policing of 
refugees at EU’s southeastern borders and termination of roaming inside 
the Fortress EU, signalled the extent to which mobility (whether of 
people or information) is becoming one of the most contested cultural 
resources for the coming future. These and other recent events also 
remind us that communication remains entrenched with haunting pasts, 
whereby the reawakened nationalisms in CEE countries and former imperial 
regionalisms cast doubt over the prospects of European integration.

The workshop will begin with a talk by one of the pioneering figures in 
British Cultural studies, David Morley, who will discuss mobility in 
Europe by looking at twin issues of immobility and invisibility, 
particularly those left-behind in the context of Brexit.

The following panel features case studies by Vana Goblot and Monika 
Metykova, looking at parallel, if contradictory, processes taking place 
at Central/Southeastern fronts of the continent. One case examines the 
current nostalgia for times of the Yugoslav form of coexistence that had 
resisted nationalism (Goblot) and the other traces renewed 
militarization at borders of select post-1989 countries (Metykova). A 
final paper, by Zlatan Krajina, argues that the notion of periphery, 
which has dominated the perception of Southeastern Europe, is 
increasingly to be understood in connection to the ongoing 
peripheralisation of the centre (Western Europe) in the context of its 
internal crises and on a global level, in relation to the rise of China.

The second and final panel begins with a paper by Marina Simić who will 
addresses the challenges of studying everyday life in postsocialism, 
from the perspective of social constructivism. The following two papers 
will address the rise of populism and authoritarianism in Souheastern 
Europe and particularly in Serbia, from somewhat different angles. 
Jelena Djordjević will assess the relevance of cultural studies, 
particularly its certain theoretical and methodological approaches, for 
understanding these recent developments, with a focus on the issue of 
agency. Snježana Milivojević will ponder the role of mainstream media in 
this new wave of authoritarianism through the glorification of the 
'strong leader'. The paper will discuss the interplay between 
communication and power in the media landscape where under the shadow of 
'Europeanisation', more media can mean less freedom.

Though seemingly quite diverse thematically, the presentations were 
gathered primarily with the aim of stimulating conversation on the state 
of cultural studies across select regions, academic worlds, and social 
contexts in Europe, particularly in the Balkans. Presentations will seek 
to initiate discussion, which will have a central place in the workshop.

**

*Programme*

10:30 Welcome from the organisers (Snježana Milivojević and Zlatan Krajina)

*10.30-11:30 Opening lecture *

David Morley (Goldsmiths, University of London, UK)

After Techno-Globalisation: the politics of closure, immobility and 
invisibility

*11:45-13:15 Panel 1*

Vana Goblot (Goldsmiths, University of London, UK)

Uses of Nostalgia: Television, politics of identity, and cultural studies

Monika Metykova (University of Brighton, UK)

We take upon ourselves the task of creating a Christian Hungary within a 
Christian Europe": Viktor Orban's Christian nationalism

Zlatan Krajina (University of Zagreb, Croatia)

Peripheries, Centres, and the Fate of (EUropean) Geography

13:30-14:30 Lunch

*14:30-16:00 Panel 2*

Marina Simić (University of Belgrade, Serbia)

Everyday life in Post-postsocialism: Social Construction of Reality and 
its Anomie

Jelena Djordjević (University of Belgrade, Serbia)

Cultural Studies and the Question of Agency: Deconstruction of Western 
Paradigms in Post-Socialist Societies

Snježana Milivojević (University of Belgrade, Serbia)

Populism and Media Polarisation: Sliding into Authoritarianism in 
Southeastern Euope



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