<TITLE: The Social Construction of Regions
ACADEMIC DOMAIN: social sciences
DISCIPLINE: international relations
EVENT TYPE: seminar presentation
FILE ID: USEMP03B
NOTES: continuation of and continued in USEMD110, seminar also includes presentations USEMP03A/C, mostly read from notes

RECORDING DURATION: 14 min 48 sec

RECORDING DATE: 9.12.2004

NUMBER OF PARTICIPANTS: 11

NUMBER OF SPEAKERS: 1

S4: NATIVE-SPEAKER STATUS: Bulgarian; ACADEMIC ROLE: undergraduate; GENDER: female; AGE: 17-23

SU: unidentified speaker>


<S4> i i wrote my paper on the balkans and er the national identities and ethnic conflicts and crisis and how it's difficult for for them to integrate . and , <READING ALOUD> the balkans is the historic and geographic name used to describe south-eastern europe , the countries of albania bosn- bosnia h- and herzegovina bulgaria croatia mainland greece former yugoslav republic of macedonia romania serbia and montenegro slovenia and the european part of turkey are commonly described as being on the balkans the boundaries of the region are somewhat elastic so romania and slovenia are not always included . the distic- the distinct identity of the balkans owes as much to its fragmented and often violent common history as to its <COUGH> mountainous geography the region was (xx) on the edge of great empires its history dominated by wars rebellions invasions and clashes between empires from the times of the roman empire to the latter day yugoslav wars , the term balkan commonly connotes a connection with violence religious strife and ethnic clannishness , the region's principal nationalities include greeks turks , serbs bulgarians albanians croats bosniacs macedonians slavs and montenegrians practically all balkanian countries have significant roma minority , other though much smaller minorities without states of their own include (dagoran) and <ETHNIC GROUP> the region's principal religions are eastern orthodox and catholic christianity and islam . when it is spoken about the balkan mentality the western countries usually react a- as if they're facing some inc- incomprehensible phenomenon which ill-functioning cannot be changed for better and is it just a myth orts- or such reality does exist in this part of eastern europe , the discussion the discussions usually go around the balkan way of thinking and the main characteristics of the balkan mentality their weaknesses and flaws but also the positive sides the balkans culture political relationships education and intellectual potential their enormous contribution to the european civilisation as a whole , there are mainly two highly specific features the orthodox tradition and the ottoman heritage , through several waves of migrations during the 19th century the ethnic structure of the region had become highly complex , during during the last decades the balkans has experienced many fights and conflicts as a result , of different people's struggle for living defend their autonomy and preserve their national identity , the the political and international dialogue in this region is very difficult and fragile due to the diverse ethnic groups and there are problems with tolerance between representatives of different ethnic groups and the integration in fields like culture education and arts , the development of self-consciousness and self-identifying (gives) a process of transition from mere belonging to a specific nation and community to national identity (anything the past) that used to come along with the society people were born in in the contemporary world everyone can in a sense to choose his or her own identity , the construction of national identity does not include only established institutions like parliament and government armies universities schools but also abstract ones like stories and myths arts and indigenous culture , in in this sense it is quite difficult for dis- for the nations on the balkans to distinguish from each other because of the simple fact that they have shared common history for centuries , and as an outcome er there is this continuous battle to privatise someone else's historical inheritance and unfortunately quite often it is a motive for bloody conflicts in the region . on the peninsula it this process of realisation of identities as po- is a source both because of the common memory of different nations and their attempts to find their clear borders in a variety of ethnics religions and cultures that clash in this place , reaching national identity and self-determination are the core problems of those countries' ambition to reach their west european neighbours' development in unity , cultural differences are never-ending (strifes) to collide with others' interests and pretensions and also part of the problem of defining very own identity and belonging to a society , the national culture and identity issues are debated today for several reasons , and first it is related to the political side of joining and integrating in such structures as the european union and NATO the concern of globalisation of the world and that some countries are filling their (xx) and their national culture , and also the very own national consciousness of the society </READING ALOUD> </S4>
<SOMEONE COMES IN>
<SU> @sorry@ i'm late </SU>
<S4> <READING ALOUD> and , speaking of europe it usually leaves the balkans a bit behind and (in turn) south as a result from the times that those lands were under the ottoman rule and the the balkans then were somewhat disconnected from the rest of europe but er in a way it united the people in the balkans through the christian belief and culture and the common language . the balkans developed er with er their own pace but er most of the ideologies political and cultural ideas were adopted from the west models . er a several national movements in the balkans tried to proclaim concepts of nationhood but er which no more with contradictory success and er in the cases . of er , south slavs all attempts to force a secular integration finally failed in a resultative and in blood sheds , there are multiple reasons for this crash divided memories and historical experience the lack of common institutional traditions and similar and er the strength of separate institutional traditions and <SIC> irrelatively </SIC> even power of catholicism orthodoxy and islam <P:07> and er , it is difficult to put into practice these concepts of nationhood that are defined by by the relationship between the state and the church and furthermore the church that is generally supposed to preserve group identity could apparently not play the same role in opposing communism as in central europe and er because of the balkans had mixed state traditions it became a region manipulated by mixed political (xx) , thus er the lack of er common understanding on how the borders of a nation should be drawn in principle led to a large number of territoli- territorial disputes , and , it also should be taken in acc- into account that democracy had almost no tradition in this region and it's difficult to implement , so it is important that whatever happens in the region it should happen in the frameworl- framework of democracy not violence human rights and the rule of law . during the recent years the balkans has become the battlefield of europe and like a chain reaction it affected slovenia croatia bosnia and herzegovina and later kosovo and macedonia , ethno-nationalism separatism internal ethnic conflicts they were all (close) to some extent by the different le- religions of the people and the religion itself was the main characteristic of identifying ethnic belonging and er the new problems after the split of yugoslavia faced many er problems like with political regimes and lack of economic prosperity and er it affect- er it affected the social structures poverty and inequality increased . er there was also the problem of social (xx) and that institutions and individuals do not share such close ties and er the decline of economic and employment low living standards and changes in the value system pushed them apart </READING ALOUD> . and . which are the victims of these ethnic conflicts , er <READING ALOUD> all the worst of former yugoslavia provide tr- er tr- tragic stories and show the real victims of the ethnic conflicts the territory control by the sarajevo government was little safer for bosnians sic- since bosnia was officially defined as multi-ethnic and yet there was a pressure towards homogeneity from the ruling muslim nationalist party and it was widely backed by a society traumatised by the war and multi-national coexistence appeared to be impossible , in kosovo albanian nationalists claimed er the situation was a conflict between serbian authorities and the albani- the albanian civil society , and this ignored the presence of serbian civilians and er many members of smaller communities . in macedonia the ethnic religious and linguistic mosaic is for the most part conflicts and for the f- from the first clashes between macedonians er forces and albanian guerrillas in 2001 the international community sought only to achieve political dialogue between the macedonians and the albanians ignoring the turks <ETHNIC GROUP> serbs <ETHNIC GROUP> and <ETHNIC GROUP> which are macedonian speaking muslim slavs the confrontation between two major groups also involved the other ethnic minorities the serbs and the <ETHNIC GROUP> both orthodox that are (xx) identified with the macedonians but the <ETHNIC GROUP> was er were in a more complicated situations er because as a macedonian speakers they were rejected by albanian nationalists but mach- macedonian nationalism violently opposed any islamic group . the , official muslim organisations in macedonia which are dominated by albanians have been trying to assimilate non-albanian muslim communities for many years , and if the political situation gets any worse smaller communities will not only be forced to choose sides er but they will have to give up much of their separate identities , and political divisions then (xx) have been ravage- that have ravaged the balkans have all increased to drive toward national homogeneity </READING ALOUD> . and then i mention about the balkan nationalism and er , that it er <READING ALOUD> seeks to create or defe- or defend us they defined in the terms of nation er of nationa- nationality or ethnicity whose er legitimacy rests on a popular feeling of belonging to a geographical political and cul- cultural entity , and all the worst that took place on the balkans are like the eastern crisis of 1878 or the balkan wars 1912-13 the two world wars and the yugoslav wars can be seen as attempts to make state frontiers er coincide with idealised national territories nationalists tend to favour territories defined this way er to those <SIC> deliminated </SIC> by natural boundaries , they speak of ethnic albania rather than greater albania forgetting that the albanians have shared the lands in question with other communities for centuries and the balkans ha- has proved too small to put up with all these territorial claims </READING ALOUD> . and , as a conclusion er <READING ALOUD> during the last decades ideological construction of national and cultural identities take place in the balkans aiming to be unique and as different as possible from the neighbouring communities and this is a process cantered on cultural homogeneity within specific state borders , together with the separate national identities crisis stands the issue of the common balkan mentality shared values stereotypes and prejudices the development of balkan identity is an important determinative but it is often confused by the contradictory self image of the people in the balkans and also with some external pressures , and it is a place where social cohesion and regional integration are difficult to realise an and the established state of things is still very delicate , and nevertheless the international community puts up efforts to prevent inter-ethnic conflicts and human rights violations and also to support the local economy improvement </READING ALOUD> <P:05> that's it </S4>
