First Regional Trainer-Training Workshop (RTTW)

Nation-State, Ethno-nationalism, Globalisation, launching session, 5 Dec. – 10 Dec. 2002 in Saint-Denis (France)


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Organised by Transeuropéennes and the Institut Français de Géopolitique (Université Saint-Denis, Paris VIII). Within Transeuropéennes’ programme : "Taking action after the war : Democracy building and the challenge of differences in South East Europe", “Democratisation and Knowledge” ; in the frame of the Stability Pact for South Eastern Europe, Programme for the encouragement of democratic dialogue and the reconstruction of social links. Supported by The French Ministry of Foreign Affairs, The Council of Europe.

 

 

Nation-State, Ethno-nationalism, Globalisation

 

The nationalist awakening, and particularistic movements in general have marked political action and debate of the nineties and will probably accompany us into the next millennium.

Most so-called nation-states in the world are in fact multi-nations and have to put up with this fact. In regions where nationalisms of the western type are less rooted, other but similar forms of particularism are rampant. The question is which way to go? Recently, another related issue has made itself prominent, namely the issue of new international order. Most civilized states have legally renounced part of their sovereignty when it comes to protecting human rights, and are in fact giving up another part when it comes to economic relations and transactions.

Le fait multi-national and the decline of sovereignty are twin fundamental challenges to the old idea of nation-state. But then again, what is the right way to go? Should we prefer to save what can be saved from the old idea? One can do it perhaps with the help of a modicum of isolationism, which is again becoming fashionable. Political programs are geared towards the goal of “ maîtriser la progression du flux migratoire ” (mastering the growth of the migratory influx) and “ l’élaboration d’une politique relative aux étrangers et au marché du travail qui préserve un rapport équilibré entre la population autochtone et la population étrangère ” (the elaboration of a policy related to the foreigners and the labour market that preserves a well-balanced relationship between the autochthonous population and the foreign population) (Le Temps, 32.2.2001).

Along the same isolationist lines, many small, newly self-assured countries would like to separate themselves from their neighbourhood: Austrian supporters of Mr Haider intensely dislike their South-Slavonic neighbours, these very same neighbours living at the edge of Balkans don't want to be seen as "Balkan people", and many East-Europeans prefer to see themselves as "central-Europeans" (so that "Eastern Europe" in their imagination seems to recede eastwards towards Pacific Ocean!). Inhabitants of other, much bigger and more developed countries worry about the membership of their countries in larger, transnational communities; the EU-membership is the most visible case in point. What about immigration policies? Can a nation simply decide it does not want to live with members of another one? If not, why not?

There is, of course, an alternative. Maybe we should welcome the deconstruction of the nation-state, both on internal and external side, and search for serious alternatives. This would mean a strong international or "cosmopolitan" order. But here again a danger has made itself felt recently. It is the danger of a "Pax Romana or Americana", an international order imposed by the strongest. Buying peace and relative safety at the expense of independence is not an attractive option, so the defender of the traditional, uni-national state can point out that his model at least saves us from an imperialist globalisation. But there must be other options worth exploring. These are the issues to be addressed by the workshop “Nation-state, Ethno-nationalism and Globalisation”. They are ideal for joint work : specialists from EU countries, especially France, and specialists and graduate students from South East Europe should joint their efforts around these topics.

 

Prepared by Nenad Miscevic

 

 

General Assessment

 

The workshop in Saint-Denis, organised in partnership with the French Geopolitical Institute at the University of Paris 8, was the first in a series of activities to have been organised and launched in the framework of a far broader programme of the Regional Trainer Training Workshops that Transeuropéennes intends to set up over the next three years. In fact, this meeting provided the first opportunity to actually implement the ideas elaborated by Transeuropéennes’ academic advisory board.

Overall, the conclusion to be drawn from this first experience is that the guiding principle behind this first workshop was well conceived. It consisted of asserting that young academics in South-East Europe suffer from the lack of visibility their research work receives and that whatever intellectual exchanges they may take part in at the regional level with their colleagues are highly inadequate, the troubles of the past ten years having fostered national and consequently intellectual compartmentalisation. The opening up of a common space for intellectual labour, exchange and motivation thus represents an indispensable preliminary condition for the resumption of a mode of co-operation widespread prior to the troubled period of the 1990s. All other things being equal, this also makes it possible to envisage giving increased visibility to the expression of a young and dynamic intellectual world and more generally to the academic production of a hitherto ostracised part of Europe.

In the course of the workshop at Saint-Denis Paris-8, the autonomy of the young guest academics and their ability to speak out were the most striking signs of their intellectual vitality and their desire to engage in a working exchange. Despite the quality of the speakers proposed by the organisers in order to nourish and foment debate (Yves Lacoste, Stéphane Yerasimos, Nenad Miscevic…), it quickly emerged that it was necessary to leave more time than initially planned for group-based work. In these workgroups, each participant put forth a research project to be carried out over the coming eighteen to twenty-four months of the workshop, which was subsequently discussed with the other group members. This on-the-spot reorganisation stemmed from a request made by the young academics themselves, and provides some indication of their implication in the workshop project in the intermediate term.

Following the Saint-Denis Paris-8 session, each participant committed him or herself to carrying out a research project on a subject that had been agreed upon and discussed by the group, which in each case was moderated by a senior academic. Three groups were formed and a protocol for communication and long-distance work arrangements was agreed upon in order to foster exchange in between the two work sessions (the intention being to improve and fine-tune the protocol in the course of the next workshop in Ljubljana). It was also planned that the next session would by hosted by the University of Maribor in Slovenia in the early summer of 2003. Moreover, the object of the next session as well as the fact that the ultimate and concrete production of the research projects will culminate in a symposium in a university in the European Union was also decided. This will make it possible to demonstrate the full relevance of co-operative intellectual work in the Balkans region and the importance of establishing ties between the latter and Western Europe.

 

Summary prepared by Christophe Ingels

 

 

Participants

 

Edina BECIREVIC - Born in 1967, she is living in Sarajevo. She obtained a MSc in Media and Communication at the London School of Economics and Political Sciences and a MA in Political Sciences at the Central European University in Budapest. She is currently teaching at the Faculty of Criminal Justice Science in Sarajevo and is researcher for the European Stability Initiative. She published many articles for different periodicals and will published in December 2002 a book entitled: “ International Criminal Court, between Ideals and Reality ”. Her proposal for the workshop is to study multiculturalism and security through the case of the BiH state (how to find a balance between individual and collective rights in a multicultural society?).

Yesim BURUL – Transeuropéennes’ alumna. Born in 1975, she is living in Istanbul. MA in Media and Communication Studies from the University of London. Currently PhD candidate at the Amsterdam School for Cultural Analysis, works on the « Diasporic Identities in the Third Space : The new cultural Space of/by 2nd generation German-Turks ». Teaching at the Faculty of Communication of the Bilgi University (Istanbul). Radio presenter and producer at the Acik Radio. Her proposal for the workshop is to study the reconsideration of the concepts of "nation state" and "globalisation" within the context of a diasporic cultural production. She would like to do it through a comparative analysis of the cultural production in the Greek diaspora and in the Turkish diaspora in Western Europe.

Serife CAM – Born in 1975, she is living in Ankara. MA in Radio, Television and Cinema from the University of Ankara on the “ Constitution of the Social Differences in Television Comedies ”. PhD thesis in Journalism in progress on “ Epistemological and Methodological Problems of the Approaches of Ideology and Discourse in Media Studies ”. Her proposal for the workshop can be entitled as, “Ethnic Differences of Prime Time : Television and the Politics of Cultural Nationalism” whose object is to study the close relationships between media representation (esp. on television) and the politics of cultural nationalism.

Emilian CIOC – Born in 1978, he is living in Sighisoara. DEA in French Contemporary Philosophy. His PhD of Philosophy about “The Accomplishment of Nihilism at the Modern Period” is in progress. He is also teaching social and political philosophy at the University of Cluj-Napoca. His proposal for the workshop is to analyse the relationship between post communism and the remanences of nationalism with regards to the modern rationality.

Stilyan DEYANOV – Born in 1976, he is living in Sofia. DEA of the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales – Paris. He is doing his PhD thesis at the EHESS about the anti-European views of Bulgarian and Romanian anti-modern philosophers before WWII. For the workshop he would like to study the presence of the idea of nation state in their discourse.

Dusica DIMITROVSKA – Born in 1974, she is living in Skopje. MA candidate in Philosophy. Research activities in the Research Center in Gender Studies of the Euro-Balkan Institute an at the Ss Cyril and Methodius University of Skopje. She is also President of a NGO working on conflict resolution and promoting non-violence. Her proposal for the workshop is to investigate the idea of democracy as connected with the dominant traditional and religious conceptions in the South Balkans.

Mihaela-Cornelia FRUNZA – Transeuropéennes’ alumna. Born in 1976, she is living in Cluj-Napoca. PhD thesis of Philosophy in progress about “Ethics and Ideology in Feminist Political Philosophy through the Case of Contemporary Liberal Feminism”. She teaches at the  University of Cluj-Napoca, and is the scientific secretary of the Academic Society for the Study of Religions and Ideologies and editor for the cultural magazine Piata Literara. Her proposal for the workshop is an analyse of Cluj’s public spaces, from public spaces to interculturality.

Frédérick DOUZET (speaker) – Geographer, she is teaching at the University of Cergy-Pontoise (France).

Eva HYSKAJ – Born in 1973, she is living in Tirana. She has a Master degree in European Studies from the Catholic University of Leuven. Her PhD thesis about nationalism in the post-communist Balkans is actually under progress. She is also teaching Balkan History at the Faculty of Tirana and doing research about minorities for different research centers in Tirana. Her proposal for the workshop is to study the future of the new Balkans state (state nation or civil nation?, ethnic confessional diversity or homogeneity?, role of nationalism on the democratic alternatives in the region).

Rada IVEKOVIC (speaker) – She is an associate professor of Philosophy at the University of Paris VIII, specialised on gender issues. Member of the editorial board of Transeuropéennes.

Slobodan KARAMANIC – Born in 1975, he is living in Ljubljana. PhD thesis of Anthropology of Everyday life in progress focused on problematics of subjectivity and identification, on articulations between universal and particular and on the construction of social imaginary. He is invited to teach Socio-cultural Anthropology at the Faculty of Philosophy in Belgrade and he is involved in the South East Europe Social Survey Program. He is also the founder and one of the members of the editorial board of a magazine. His proposal for the workshop is an analysis of the relations between liberalism, socialism and nationalism, especially, in concrete cases, such as right-wing phenomena on civil sector.

Andrej KURILLO – Transeuropéennes’ alumnus. Born in 1976, he is living in Kranj. MA thesis of History in progress on the Slovene political and economic elites between 1890 and 1914. His proposal for the workshop is a study on the national identity and political culture in the 19th century and on the continuity or discontinuity of it during the 20th century.

William KLINGER - Born in 1972, he is living in Rijeka. MA in Political Science at the Central European University of Budapest, is actually preparing his PhD thesis about the formation of a national identity during the nineteenth century in Rijeka. He is also teaching at the University of Rijeka since 2001. His proposal for the workshop is a work on the taxonomy of nationalism as well as other secessionist or separatist phenomena and the place and perspective of nationalism in the modern world.

Yves LACOSTE (speaker) – Professor in Geopolitics, he is also director of the journal "Hérodote".

Demet LUKUSLU – Transeuropéennes’ alumna. Born in 1977, she is living in Paris. DEA of sociology at the EHESS. PhD thesis in progress about the relationships between the state, the society and the youth in Turkey at the age of the globalisation. Research assistant at the university of Kahramanmaras. Her proposal for the workshop is to study the young Turkish people’s perception of the globalisation.

Leon MALAZOGU – Born in 1977, he is living in Prishtina. MA in Political Sciences about “ The Role of International Organizations as Third Parties in Internal Ethnic Dispute”. He is currently teaching at the university of Prishtina and is also a researcher at the Kosovar Institute for Policy Research and Development. He is working for the OSCE and will publish in 2002 a book entitled “ Albanians as Majorities and Minorities : a Regional Dialogue ”. His proposal for the workshop is to study cross border cooperation of academics as a case of conflict prevention.

Tchavdar MARINOV – Transeuropéennes’ alumnus. Born in 1974, he is living in Sofia. DEA from the EHESS – Paris. PhD thesis in progress on the bulgaro-macedonian historiographical and linguistic conflicts since 1948. His proposal for the workshop is about ethnonationalism in Bulgaria and Macedonia seen through the national histories of both country since the 60’s.

Nenad MISCEVIC (speaker) – He is professor of philosophy at the University of Maribor and at the Central European University of Budapest.

Asim MUJKIC – Born in 1968, he is living in Sarajevo. His PhD thesis of Philosophy was on : “ The Anti-Essentialist Character of the Philosophy of Pragmatism ”. Now he is teaching “ Ethics and Contemporary Philosophy ” at the Sociology Department of the Faculty of Political Sciences of Sarajevo. His proposal for the workshop is to study the role of ethnocapitalism in strengthening of ethnoabsolutism.

Halil NALCAOGLU (speaker) – Teaching Sociology at the University of Ankara, he has been working recently on the “iconology of nationalism” and on “the sense of homeland (Arabic: Watan)”. Editor of the bi-lingual journal Culture and Communication.

Maria SITARA – Born in 1969, she is living in Athens. DEA of Social Science from the EHESS in Paris. PhD thesis under progress about “ the relationship between science, ideology and politics in modern Greece through the case of the scientific discourse during the Kosovo war ”. She is also member of Amnesty International and of the Hellenic Political Association. Her proposal for the workshop is to study the role of opinion matters in the emergence of nationalism.

Zsolt PATAKI (speaker) – Diplomat at the permanent delegation of Hungary to the OECD.

Assimakis TSERONIS - Transeuropéennes’ alumnus. Born in 1975, he is living in Amsterdam. After a BA of Greek literature and linguistics he followed a MA in language studies in the university of Lancaster (UK) and would like to start soon a PhD at the university of Amsterdam on the analysis of discourse about immigrants in Greece through the media, history school books and everyday discourse. His proposal for the workshop is to study how history school books could be the conveyors of nationalism.

Radina VUCETIC-MLADENOVIC – Born in 1972, she is living in Belgrade. Undergoing PhD thesis of History about “ the Americanisation of Cultural Live in Belgrade from  1945-1980 ”. She is also a researcher for the Institute for Recent History of Serbia and project manager of the association for social history-EUROCLIO (independent history teachers’ association). Her proposal for the workshop is to analyse the image of the other in the late 80 in Yugoslavia.

Stéphane YERASIMOS (speaker) – Urban planner, specialist of Balkan and Ottoman History.

 

 

Co-organisers

 

TRANSEUROPEENNES/RCE, Paris, France, is an independant non-governmental organization and an international review of critical thought acting since 1994 in the Balkans and 1995 in the Mediterranean area. It aims at promoting and spreading the democratic and transcultural dialogue through intellectuals, professors, journalists, students, NGO activists, opinion multipliers, in fields related to the social and political sciences, international relations, arts, culture and the media. This workshop is organized in the framework of Transeuropeennes’ programme “Taking Action After the War : Democracy Building and the Challenge of Differences in South-East Europe” and its component “Democratisation and Knowledge”. General Director : Ghislaine GLASSON DESCHAUMES ; Programme Manager : Christophe INGELS ; Project Coordinator : Suzana DUKIC ; Assistant Project Coordinator : Olivier ROBERT ; Administrator : Lisa TICHANE.


INSTITUT FRANCAIS DE GEOPOLITIQUE – Université Paris VIII Saint-Denis. Director : Béatrice GIBLIN.

Scientific coordination : Christophe INGELS, Nenad MISCEVIC, Stéphane YERASIMOS.