1st Edition
Memory Politics and Populism in Southeastern Europe
This book explores the politics of memory in Southeastern Europe in the context of rising populisms and their hegemonic grip on official memory and politics.
It speaks to the increased political, media and academic attention paid to the rise of discontent, frustration and cultural resistance from below across the European continent and the world. In order to demonstrate the complexities of these processes, the volume transcends disciplinary boundaries to explore memory politics, examining the interconnections between memory and populism. It shows how memory politics has become one of the most important fields of symbolic struggle in the contemporary process of "meaning-making," providing space for actors, movements and other mnemonic entrepreneurs who challenge and point to incoherencies in the official narratives of memory and forgetting.
Charting the contemporary rise of populist movements, the volume will be of particular interest to regional specialists in Southeastern Europe, Balkan and postcommunist studies, as well as researchers, activists, policy-makers and politicians at the national and EU levels and academics in the fields of political science, sociology, history, cultural heritage and management, conflict and peace studies.
Editorial Preface – Jody Jensen
Chapter 1: Introduction: Memory Politics and Populism in Southeastern Europe – Toward an Ethnographic Understanding of Enmity
Astrea Pejović And Dimitar Nikolovski
Chapter 2: (Not) Remembering A Populist Event: The Serbian Antibureaucratic Revolution (1988–1989)
Rory Archer
Chapter 3: The Modernist Abject: Ruins of Socialism, Reconstruction And Populist Politics In Belgrade And Sarajevo
Gruia Bădescu
Chapter 4: Whose Is Herceg Kosača? Populist Memory Politics of Constructing “Historical People” In Bosnia And Herzegovina
Igor Stipić
Chapter 5: Of (Anti)Fascists And (Anti)Communists: Constructing the People and Its Enemies at The Partisan Memorial Cemetery in Mostar
Marija Ivanović
Chapter 6: Populism Versus Working-Class Culture in The Memory Politics of Korčanica Memorial Zone
Mišo Kapetanović
Chapter 7: The "War for Peace": Commemoration of The Bombing of Dubrovnik In Montenegro
Astrea Pejović
Chapter 8: Contested Narratives of Bleiburg In the Context of WW II Remembrance in Croatia
Ana Ljubojević
Chapter 9: Populism, Memory Politics and The Ustaša Movement 1945-2020
Lovro Kralj
Chapter 10: Operation Museum: Memory Politics As "Populist Mobilization" In North Macedonia (2006-2011)
Naum Trajanovski
Chapter 11: Integration Versus Identity: Memory Politics, Populism and The Good Neighborliness Agreement Between North Macedonia And Bulgaria
Dimitar Nikolovski
Chapter 12: Lukov March As A "Template of Possibility" For Historical Revisionism: Memory, History and Populism In Post-1989 Bulgaria
Filip Lyapov
Biography
Jody Jensen is the Director of the Polányi Centre at the Institute of Advanced Studies, Kőszeg (iASK). She is a senior research fellow at the Institute of Political Sciences at the Hungarian Academy of Sciences.
"This timely and important edited volume brings us crucial evidence on why we cannot understand the populism of today without understanding memory politics and vice versa. Drawing on a wealth of evidence and based on numerous case studies from the Southeastern European context, the book demonstrates the richness, complexity and many layers of the intriguing intersection between populism and memory politics. Both academic and non-academic audiences will greatly benefit from its insights." - Dr Lea David, Assistant Professor, Ad Astra Fellow, School of Sociology, University College Dublin."Contemporary cultures of remembrance are shaped by governmental politics of history, by the memory of families, generations and other societal strata as well as by the activities of civil society. In postcommunist Southeastern Europe actors applying populist patterns of argumentation are gaining ground on all three levels. The present volume highlights this process brilliantly with the example of the ‘Yugosphere' (and Bulgaria) by focussing on populist discursive strategies during the last decade—a must-read for Europeanists and Balkanists and for everyone interested in how populists apply memory politics in pursuing their aims." - Stefan Troebst, Professor of East European Cultural History, Leipzig University, Germany.
"Memory politics is of extreme importance for political and social life, especially in Europe and specifically in Southeastern Europe. The volume Memory Politics and Populism in Southeastern Europe, edited by Jody Jensen, should be used in high schools and universities, and in seminars because we need tougher engagement with this issue." - Erhard Busek, former Vice Chancellor of Austria, and Special Coordinator of the Stability Pact for South Eastern Europe.
