The interdisciplinary project aims to approach the region via various innovative perspectives to evaluate its subjective and objective position towards the rest of Europe
The Balkan region is located in the neighbourhood of the European Union and shares a long history with the European continent. This interdisciplinary project aims to approach the region via various innovative perspectives to evaluate its subjective and objective position towards the rest of Europe, to elaborate on their contribution in shaping Europe, their cultural and social importance, and their historical legacies, yet always taking the connections and relations to the neighbouring regions and the impact of its proximity into consideration.
This interdisciplinary project aims to free the Western Balkans of their image as an enclave for the purpose of offering a more constructive analysis and generous European perspectives. Beyond the ‘Western Balkan’ label (‘WB’ label), there is a set of countries embedded in a larger macro- and interregional reality. Mapping the larger area as the enclave’s genuine neighbourhood will emphasise how close the WB are to their EU environment. It is also a conceptual framework that will open up some recurring questions about integration and democracy. Proximity and neighbourhood are concepts with the potential to rethink the region instead of excluding a part of it from our European interrogations.
Content
A patchwork of old-new nations; an interlacing of faiths and traditions; the vicinity of the close and the distant past; the contiguity, in space and time, of European integration: the Balkans, within Europe, can be interpreted as a complex set of proximities. The peninsula reflects the diversity of the continent to which it belongs. It also highlights that, beyond the catchy commonplace, diversity is a challenge: initially based on fractures, diversity turns into a value when integration overrides the mere juxtaposition of differences. The post-war European project was about creating such constructive neighbourhood relations.
Geographical proximity does not lead automatically to fruitful neighbourhood dynamics. Georg Simmel pointed out in his classic framework how proximity in itself does not guarantee neighbourhood. Individuals or groups might live close to each other; there is, so to speak, no space (‘nothing’) between them if they do not build up neighbourly relations. In our times of fractured digital identities, the very process of Europeanization seems to stall in the Balkans due to this lack of real, constructed, and developed ‘space’ between nations, peoples, cultures. Following Simmel, a genuine neighbourhood is the very opposite of such a compact yet disarticulated patchwork.
The Balkans’ European integration can be read as a transition from the patchwork to a cohesive neighbourhood structure. The peninsula’s geopolitical location is also an issue of longer-term European neighbourhood strategy: the region’s integration guarantees that its multiple fractures will not expose it as a playground for global players, i.e., political and economic ‘neighbours’ who weaken Europe.
Research foci
The proximity and neighbourhood framework improves our understanding on at least four major points:
Objectives
Publications are an integral part of the project. The ideas for the project are being developed in a series of commentaries, which are published on the website of the Albert Hirschman Centre on Democracy. For further information on the commentary series, please see: https://www.graduateinstitute.ch/communications/news/balkans-proximity-and-neighborhood-challenge-democratic-transformation
The experts and academics involved in the project are disseminating the research outcomes in conferences and publications. The Andrássy Forum for Western Balkan Studies has included the project as one of its research priorities.
A substantial publication, a book, or a special journal issue will bring together the research outcomes of the project. PhD students researching the Balkans are encouraged to join the project and to contribute to its research and publication activities, thereby benefitting from such an interdisciplinary and international platform. The conducted research could also feed into new courses provided by the host institutions.
Contacts
Adam Bence Balazs: Fellow for the Graduate Institute in Geneva and the Laboratoire de Changement Social et Politique (LCSP) - Université de Paris (f. Paris 7 - Denis-Diderot); Lecturer at Andrássy Universität Budapest; adam.balazs@andrassyuni.hu
Christina Griessler: Research Fellow for the Network for Political Communication (netPOL) at the Andrássy University Budapest; christina.griessler@andrassyuni.hu
Partner: Albert Hirschmann Centre on Democracy, Graduate Institute Geneva
Text by Dr Christina Griessler
The publication was financially supported by the Pallas Athéné Domus Meriti Foundation.