Re/placing Kosovo: narratives of identification and the nation-building process in the post-conflict context

Description

Ten years after declaring independence, Kosovo continues with the often complicated process of establishing itself as Europe’s youngest state. State-building in Kosovo faces various obstacles; the creation of viable, trustworthy institutions; application of the rule of law; developing a well-functioning democracy, and improving living standards for all citizens.
While the political difficulties of these state-building processes are unquestionably significant, this research argues Kosovo faces more fundamental socio-cultural concerns which complicate efforts to determine agreeable solutions. These relate particularly to Kosovo’s history and how it is seen and understood; disagreements arise over transitional justice, dealing with the past, and disparate notions of memory and identification. Yet they also address Kosovo’s present and future substance and stability, being rooted in questions over the type of state Kosovo should become, the nature of its people, who belongs, and the viability of current visions of Kosovo’s foreseen trajectory.
This research uses in-depth interviews to shed light on how ideas and visions of Kosovo are
subsequently shaped by members of its society. Establishing the new state produces changes in the socio-political context in which ordinary people live out their lives, a consequence of creating new institutions, new legal frameworks, and new definitions of citizenship. The study aims to explore how resulting developments are handled by those experiencing them; how individuals understand what is taking place around them, and how they integrate the ongoing ‘respacing, reordering, and replacing’ of the immediate social, political and cultural context into subsequent personal visions of both themselves and the worlds in which they live out their lives.

Period	7-Jun-2019
Event title	Identity in Times of Change
Event type	Conference
Location	Manchester, United KingdomShow on map