Centre for Advanced Study Sofia Newsletter, no. 1, 2002

32 Pages·2002·1.8 MB·English

by  Centre for Advanced Study Sofia

CCoonntteennttss
2 About CAS
3 The NEXUS Research Project
4 VViinnttiillaa MMiihhaaiilleessccuu
How About Common Positive Thinking
on the Balkans?
6 AAlleexxaannddeerr KKiioosssseevv
on the Complexity of Identities in Central
and Southeast Europe
Project Parade: The Identity Reader
10 DDiiaannaa MMiisshhkkoovvaa
The Youthful Network
13 BBooyyaann MMaanncchheevv aanndd BBaalláázzss TTrreennccsséénnyyii
on the Origins, Outcomes
and Ambitions of the Network
CAS – In the Eye of the Region
17 HHaalliill BBeerrkkttaayy
on CAS, the Balkan Summer University
and Turkish Nationalism
A Library in the Making
The overall commitment of CAS is
19 MMaarriinnaa EEnncchheevvaa to generate and disseminate
What the Centre’s Library Does
knowledge as well as improve
standards of learning
20 Fellows
in the Social Sciences and
the Humanities.
Events to Expect
By offering individual scholarships
28 ‘The Balkans: Mapping Identities
to prominent scholars from Bulgaria,
(XVIII-XXI Centuries)’ Conference,
CAS and Sofia University, October 2002 Southeast Europe, and further
abroad and by running
Project Nursery autonomous group and regional
29 Balkan Cross-Border Summer University projects, CAS aims to create
institutional conditions conducive
30 CAS Gallery to independent research,
intellectual creativity
Document Drawer and dialogue on
31 Co-operation Agreement Between CAS a national
and the Ministry of Education and Science and regional scale.
32 CAS Calendar April – August 2002
Centre for Advanced Study in Sofia No 11 // spring // 2002
Members of the CAS Board
of Trustees:
The Centre for Advanced Study in Sofia (CAS) is an independent non- DDrr.. WWoouutteerr HHuuggeennhhoollttzz,,
profit institution set up for the promotion of advanced scholarship and Executive Director of the Netherlands
academic cooperation. It provides financial and institutional support for Institute for Advanced Study, (Chairman)
post-doctoral research and for research programmes in the Humanities PPrrooff.. MMaarriiaa TTooddoorroovvaa,,
and the Social Sciences. University of Illinois at
The idea of creating a small ‘centre of academic excellence’ in Sofia draws Urbana-Champaign
upon the traditions and the practices of the Institutes for Advanced Study PPrrooff.. DDiieetteerr GGrriimmmm,,
in the US and Europe. CAS has emerged in response to specific na- Rector of the Wissenschaftskolleg
tional and regional context-generated needs, especially the drastically di- zu Berlin
minished influence of academia in the public sphere and the lack of intel- PPrrooff.. BBooyyaann BBiioollttcchheevv,,
lectual agency to carry out authoritative critical self-reflection in the soci- Rector of Sofia University
eties of the region. In the context of European integration, on the other St. Kliment Ohridski
hand, the Southeast-European countries need to develop a new regional PPrrooff.. AAnnddrreejj PPlleessuu,,
network for academic and intellectual co-operation and facilitate their re- Rector of the New Europe College,
gional and European opening. There is thus a clear need to foster the Bucharest
production of knowledge and innovative ideas about the region as a step
towards a fundamental reconsideration of the notion of European belonging. Members of the CAS Executive
Board:
PPrrooff.. AAlleexxaannddeerr SShhuurrbbaannoovv,,
Sofia University St. Kliment Ohridski
(Chairman)
PPrrooff.. NNaauumm YYaakkiimmooffff,,
Bulgarian Academy of Sciences
(Vice-Chairman)
DDrr.. DDiiaannaa MMiisshhkkoovvaa,,
Sofia University St. Kliment Ohridski
(Executive Director)
DDrr.. AAlleexxaannddeerr KKiioosssseevv,,
Sofia University St. Kliment Ohridski
Centre for Advanced Study in Sofia
(Academic Director)
Alexander Battenberg St. 4, 3rd floor, Sofia 1000, Bulgaria
tel.: [phone] web-page: www.cas.bg PPrrooff.. TTzzoottcchhoo BBooiiaaddjjiieevv,,
fax: [phone] e-mail: [email protected] Sofia University St. Kliment Ohridski
Sponsors: Partners:
(cid:1) (cid:1)
Ministry of Education, Culture and Science, Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin, Germany
The Netherlands (cid:1)
(cid:1)
Netherlands Institute for Advanced Study in
Netherlands Institute for Advanced Study in the Humanities and Social Sciances /NIAS/
the Humanities and Social Sciances /NIAS/ (cid:1)
(cid:1)
Collegium Budapest, Hungary
Volkswagen Foundation, Germany (cid:1)
(cid:1) New Europe College /NEC/, Romania
European Cultural Foundation (cid:1)
(cid:1)
Center for Liberal Strategies Sofia, Bulgaria
Prince Bernhard Cultural Foundation,
The Netherlands
(cid:1)
Open Society Foundation, Bulgaria
2
The NEXUS Research Project
HOW TO
THINK ABOUT
THE BALKANS:
CULTURE,
REGION,
IDENTITIES
NEXUS began as part of a larger framework project called Designed originally as one of the research groups of Blue
‘Blue Bird’, initiated by the Center for Liberal Strategies Bird - the ‘Southeast European (SEE) Identity group’,
in Sofia and aimed at constructing a coherent intellectual NEXUS began with five Senior Fellows, experts in history,
vision for the future of the Balkans through local and cultural history, literary criticism, anthropology, sociology
international debate about positive common opportuni- and economic history. However, NEXUS then grew au-
ties for the region. tonomously and now has 22 Fellows: 6 Senior Fellows,
14 Associate Fellows and 2 Distant Associate Fellows from
Bulgaria, Greece, Romania, Turkey and Serbia.
NEXUS studies Regional Identity in Southeast Europe. It
tries to answer questions such as: How to think about the
Balkans: as a culture, a region, or a cluster of identities?
How much, if at all, under what historical circumstances,
and in what cultural and social forms have the inhabit-
ants of this region felt they belong to the same commu-
nity (culturally, anthropologically, historically, politically)?
To what extent, under what conditions, have they rejected
common belonging and shared no consciousness of col-
lective identity?
The NEXUS scholars are thus re-thinking the history, or
rather histories, of the region – in their diversity and com-
monality. Using anthropological, sociological, historical
and hermeneutic methods, they study intellectual and
political debates, education systems, lifestyles, cultural,
military and economic histories, and map the controver-
sial interaction of various identity patterns (local, national,
regional, confessional, occidental, oriental, global, etc.).
The NEXUS team is profoundly grateful to the bodies whose Their ultimate goal is to answer a crucial question con-
generosity has made the project possible and helped its subse- cerning the future of the region: What kind of SEE iden-
quent development. NEXUS is funded by a grant from tity/ies is/are possible?
the Volkswagen Foundation (VolkswagenStiftung), In administrative terms, the project is managed by its Re-
Germany, channeled through search Coordinator (Convenor) – Dr. Alexander Kiossev
the Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin to of Sofia University and hosted by the Centre for Advanced
the Center for Liberal Strategies in Sofia, Study in Sofia. In academic terms, Prof. Maria Todorova,
and by additional grants from of Southern Illinois University at Urbana-Champaign, acts
the European Cultural Foundation (ECF) and as Research Advisor. The project is supervised by
the Netherlands Institute for Advanced Study (NIAS). Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin.
No 11 // spring // 2002 3
Project Parade: NEXUS
HHooww AAbboouutt
CCoommmmoonn
PPoossiittiivvee TThhiinnkkiinngg
oonn tthhee BBaallkkaannss??
VViinnttiillaa
MMiihhaaiilleessccuu,
When I started coming to Sofia every month for a Romanian social scientist trying to un-
Professor of
Anthropology, as a senior fellow of the Nexus team, some of derstand his own society, the Balkans are an
my colleagues at the University, knowing that inevitable frame of reference; second, attitudes
Headperson, National
I am ‘well-connected’ (with Western universi- towards this important frame of reference vary
School of Political
ties, that is), began to wonder: ‘What’s a nice between overt or furtive lack of interest, and
Sciences and
guy like you doing in a place like this?’ It took complacent, gentle ignorance; third, current
Administration,
them six months to come up with a ‘plausible social life can not be approached solely in terms
Bucharest,
reason’: I must have, they surmised, a Bulgar- of absent social standards to be pursued - much
Romania
ian girlfriend and Nexus was just an excuse to too frequently the case when scrutinizing the
conceal my romance! Another possible reason, Balkan countries. One cannot think of one’s
money, seemed much less convincing to them: culture in terms of gaps: identifying with a miss
one could have similar financial rewards in can be but a mess!
better locations, they reasoned. Does this mean that Nexus is a solution to
At about the same time I participated in all these problems, and to other similar prob-
another project called ‘Balkan Neighbors’, lems not mentioned here? No. And I do not
monitoring the images of Balkan countries in think it should attempt that. What, then, makes
other Balkan countries’ national newspapers. it meaningful? My reply is in the following brief
We found almost exclusively stories of an EU- statements: Nexus is not a ‘think tank’, work-
membership marathon accompanied by com- ing out solutions for the Balkans, but an intel-
mentaries estimating the chances of, say, Bul- lectual community trying to re-phrase and re-
garia or Romania to arrive in Brussels first, formulate problems of Balkan life, as part of a
written in a spirit far from the ideal of fair play. more general effort to face what has been often
A final anecdote: I was preparing for a trip termed the ‘crisis of representing society’, the
to Skopje for a possible joint project with the Balkans being just a particularly delicate case
university there. At the office, a young colleague in point. Nexus is – and should be – a space of
wondered ironically: ‘But do they have a uni- common positive thinking about the Balkans,
versity there?’ By contrast, at home, my aged undertaken by committed but not emotionally
father, a physician, drew me a map and told biased scholars.
me about the features of the landscape and The word ‘positive’ here does not refer to
monuments I would see on my way, and the value judgements. It implies scrutiny of actu-
people I would meet. He has never been to ally existing subject matter as distinct from wish-
Skopje, but this information was as much part ful expectations or unfortunate gaps. ‘Common’
of his general knowledge and culture as infor- is also important in this statement, meaning a
mation about the museums of Paris or the collective effort of people having something in
monuments of Rome. common and willing to take a closer and criti-
And yet, here I am, in the second year of cal look at it. This is precisely what my experi-
my Nexus ‘love story’. Why? My initial rea- ence with Nexus has been so far: a team of
sons for becoming involved with Nexus were scholars helping each other while scrutinizing
more or less the following: First, I believe that their own object of interest to see it in a more
4
Centre for Advanced Study in Sofia
Project Parade:NEXUS
‘current social life can
not be approached
solely in terms of
absent social stan-
dards to be pursued -
much too frequently
the case when
scrutinizing the Balkan
countries. One cannot
think of one’s culture in
terms of gaps:
identifying with a miss
can be but a mess!’
nuanced and adequate way. Further, sharing of local origin – and thus originality: perceived
comments and debates on each individual pre- difference in space is re-cast as a claim of pri-
sentation but also producing ‘team presenta- ority in time. Taking a closer look at this social
tions’ is a way of finally shaping a common construction may help us understand better the
language, i.e. a jointly (re)formulated way of way nations - Romanians and, of course, oth-
representing Balkan societies. ers – use their past, each in their own manner,
After this short confession about why I am to build their present identity and (re)act ac-
in Nexus, I have to come now to a final point: cording to it. Thus, a history of ‘diffuse eth-
what am I doing here? nology’ in Romania is one case study in the
As an anthropologist, I am used to stick to issue of Balkan identity.
fieldwork. This time – and in this context – I How did I come to this topic? Due to a
decided to step back from my current work and very Balkan experience!
reflect on what more than a century of ‘domes- I was in Plovdiv, teaching a class at the
tic fieldwork’ (known as ethnography and folk- Balkan Summer University. I mentioned sarmi
lore) has generated as knowledge about Ro- (stuffed vine leaves) as a metonymy for Balkan
mania and, in a way, imposed as an image of ethnic identities. One day, we were served
Romanian ‘specificity’. sarmi in the canteen and a young Slovene doc-
There are many reasons for undertaking toral student exclaimed: ‘Look, we have sarmi
such a critical history of what I call ‘diffuse for lunch!’ After a closer look, she said, disap-
ethnology’ in Romania. First, it is because a pointed: ‘But these are not real sarmi!’
young discipline, such as ethnology in Roma- Ever since, I have been wondering how a
nia and other Balkan countries, has to become sarma can be more or less ‘real’. And further,
aware of its own past in order to continue its what is the difference between a ‘real’ sarma
development (cf. Bausinger’s work on German and a ‘good’ sarma? It seems trivial, does it
Volkskunde). But this ethnology has not devel- not? But the seemingly trivial fact has a long
oped just as an academic discipline; it has (hi)story behind it, and is the result of a pro-
evolved into what Stocking calls a ‘nation-build- cess of social construction of a genuine national
ing ethnology’. Thus, second, it is interesting marker. It is this process that deserves closer
to study how this evolution happened. Finally, scrutiny. In a way, my main aim in my current
ethnology is also fruitfully examined as the ex- project is to deconstruct the sarma. ‘Diffuse
pression of a larger ideology that we can call ethnology’ in Romania is a case I know well,
‘Folklorism’. Related to, but not overlapping and a case study that can help us understand
with, Traditionalism, Folklorism is a distinct sarma-making processes in the Balkans.
member of a certain family of –isms including
Primitivism, Orientalism, Balkanism and so on.
Reacting to all these projections of the origi-
nal, distant or close Other as difference,
Folklorism is a discourse about the Self as speci-
ficity, constructing this specificity as a source
No 11 // spring // 2002 5
Project Parade: NEXUS
NNEEXXUUSS
and the Complex
Identities of People
in Central
and Southeast
Europe
An interview Dr. Kiossev, what is the issue at the heart of Precisely what radical consequences do you
with DDrr.. AAlleexxaannddeerr the Nexus Project? envisage then?
KKiioosssseevv, Associate
Professor of Cultural It is an attempt to change the ‘value horizon’ – Well, in academic research the ‘radical conse-
Studies at Sofia the guiding values - of research in the fields of quences’ cannot be expected to go beyond
University, Academic history, literary and cultural history, anthro- scholarly results: articles and books which ini-
Director of CAS and pology, sociology and others. Many of these tiate scholarly debate. The nearest goal is to
Nexus Convenor. disciplines developed in the 19th century as part produce a series of individual studies united
of a nationalist agenda typical of young nations; by a methodological framework and examin-
they were inscribed in the institutions of na- ing the network of dynamic identities covering
tionhood and slotted into corresponding de- the Balkans. The expected result is thus a se-
partments. The nationalist approach to their ries of publications that will generate discus-
subject matter is thus part of their very struc- sion in the respective academic fields. How-
ture. By forming an interdisciplinary and in- ever, Nexus is also part of a larger structure, a
ternational team, Nexus is trying to change political project – Blue Bird – whose aim is to
these defaults in the agendas of the humani- create a positive political vision for the Balkans.
ties. We are trying to do research that does not The authors of Blue Bird, Ivan Krustev and
necessarily consider its supreme value to be the his co-workers, including ourselves, believe that
nation, its historical development, its emanci- thus far Western discourse on the Balkans has
We are trying to do
pation, its own exalted cultural tradition. We been dominated by negative concepts – not only
research that does not
are interested in the ‘horizontal’ dimension, the stigmatizing concepts, characteristic of the so-
necessarily consider its
similarities between nations and between mi- called Balkanism, but also concepts of isola-
supreme value to be
norities, the shifting maps of cultural identity tion, encapsulation, security issues and other
the nation, its historical
in the Balkans, rather than in invoking the same implicitly negative terms. This leads to a defi-
development, its national cultural values ad infinitum. It is a cit of perspective, a shortage of visions about
emancipation, its own
change of perspective that, we hope, will have the future of the Balkans. The Blue Bird
exalted cultural some radical consequences. project consists of four groups – one studying
tradition. We are the role of the nation-state, the extent to which
interested in the it can be an agent of development, the issue of
‘horizontal’ dimension, the weak state that cannot actually exercise its
the similarities formal powers. A second group examines the
between nations and issue of social inclusion – of the existence of
between minorities, the underprivileged minorities and groups that have
shifting maps of to be drawn into the democratic process. The
cultural identity in the third group studies opportunities for the eco-
Balkans, rather than in nomic development of the Balkans as a region
invoking the same – the extent to which there are common char-
national cultural values acteristics and causes for the economic back-
ad infinitum. wardness of the region, the possible models for
6
Centre for Advanced Study in Sofia
Project Parade: NEXUS
describing, and mechanisms political elites. In addition to their schol- ate fellows have already finished their
for influencing, this eco- arly publications, the individual projects. For the second year, we man-
nomic situation in order to projects, Nexus included, and then aged to secure two additional places –
free up the region’s full eco- Blue Bird as a whole, have to produce one for a Bulgarian and one for a re-
nomic potential. The fourth a concluding ‘policy paper’ to be of- gional fellow; we had so many excel-
group studies the cultures, fered to the individual governments in lent applicants that Wissenschaftskolleg
traditions and identities in the region and to the European Union. zu Berlin assisted us in obtaining ad-
the Balkans. The initial task On the other hand, by ‘positive vision’ ditional funding. The success of Nexus
that Blue Bird gave the I also mean a vision of the future which can be judged by the number of appli-
Nexus scholars was to find allows human existence in Southeast cations for regional fellows that we re-
out whether a common Europe to feel dignified and purpose- ceived this time – fifteen in all. In the
Balkan regional identity ful, a vision whereby belonging to this end, we selected two brilliant projects
was possible. As humanities part of Europe is not considered as a - those of Dr. Blagovest Zlatanov from
scholars, we decided that stigma but rather as a chance. These Sofia University of Ayse Parla, a
this task was too reminiscent two tasks are equally important but dif- graduate student at New York Univer-
of social engineering and ficult to combine. sity.
therefore our position in the Blue Bird
scheme would have to be productively So your skepticism towards Blue Bird What is the exact role of the senior
sceptical. We would not pose our ques- is constructive? fellows in the project?
tions and formulate our answers to nec-
essarily give a definitive reply to the That is right, it is rather wariness to- As senior fellows, we have some ad-
question whether such an identity is wards attempts at social and political ministrative duties to perform – we, for
possible. We would rather complicate engineering. We, as sociologists, histo- instance, had to dismiss with regret two
the issue and try to show the multitude rians and anthropologists are aware of fellows who simply did not do their
of points of view and the various pro- the traps and problems involved, espe- work. In academic discussion, however,
jections of identities and acts of identi- cially with such loaded heritage. The there are no seniors – there is demo-
fication characteristic of the Balkans. slogan ‘Let’s forget the past’ is not cratic debate and all viewpoints are
We would try to counter the cliché that enough to make people forget the past. permissible. At our sponsors’ request,
the Balkans are an obscure territory of And our answer to Blue Bird’s ques- we have ‘tutoring’ – every younger fel-
politically infantile anti-states always tion of whether a regional identity is low has a tutor from the senior team,
hostile to one another and view the re- possible is neither ‘Yes’ nor ‘No’. It is but this is rather an additional oppor-
gion as the arena of complex interac- to offer a complex picture of the pro- tunity for intellectual communication
tion of people who feel they belong in cesses of identification in the Balkans. than an occasion for one-way instruc-
various places, groups, ethnicities, re- It is more important to show the diffi- tion.
ligions, cultures and historical tradi- culties, the environment, to draw as
tions. This is perhaps the project’s prin- complete as possible a picture of the Could the relationships within Nexus
cipal innovative idea – that the concept cultural landscape, to enable the mak- serve as any kind of a model for re-
of identity has to be replaced by the ing of informed political decisions tak- lations between Balkan people?
concept of ‘acts of identification’, by a ing into account the full complexity of
description of the hidden, internally that landscape. This is not a goal of our project. We
contradictory dynamic of identities in are simply an individual team that has
the Balkans, which are always linked What is the project’s organizational its weaknesses and we cannot aspire to
with geographical space. It is as if we structure? be a model to anybody. But, to a cer-
are drawing maps on a number of os- tain extent, it could happen in prac-
cillating transparencies that are stacked There are five (soon to become six) tice. The differences between us in the
on top of one an other. senior fellows: Vintila Mihailescu, beginning, when Nexus had not yet
Diana Mishkova, Slobodan Naumovic, developed its own common language,
When you say ‘positive vision’ do you Roumen Avramov and myself. We are ethos and theoretical base, were much
mean the opposite of ‘negative’ or to be joined by Prof. Halil Berktay from greater than they are now. There were
do you refer to positive as ‘present’ Sabanci University in Istanbul. These frictions between the representatives of
rather than absent? senior fellows work on three-year different academic disciplines and dif-
projects. Every year we also appoint ferent nations. Indeed, the need for an
I mean, on the one hand, the presence six associate fellows on ten- or six- individual scholar to adapt to the speci-
of specific goals such as a considered month projects – four Bulgarians and ficity of other nationalities and other
system of specific recommendations to two from the region. The first associ- disciplines is one of the greatest chal-
No 11 // spring // 2002 7
Project Parade: NEXUS
NEXUS and the Complex Identities of People in Central and Southeast Europe
lenges of Nexus. Yet there was great enthusi- or real ‘centres’ in Europe – a regrettable but
‘there was great
asm in the beginning, which is still going strong, very real situation. I am no exception – for in-
enthusiasm in the
and which makes Nexus meetings hugely en- stance, I know many more German than Greek
beginning, which is still
joyable. They are also an ‘anthropological literary historians. We are trying to overcome
going strong, and
treat’, since the Nexus team grew to like each this asymmetry. True, since the Nexus team is
which makes Nexus
other and now enjoy spending time together. composed of established senior scholars, we
meetings hugely
Unlike other international teams, we meet in- learned about each other from publications in
enjoyable. They are
frequently and the available time is thus used the principal international scholarly journals.
also an ‘anthropologi-
intensively for both formal and informal com- The nucleus of Nexus selected itself through
cal treat’, since the
munication. For instance, recently we held an international reputation. The term ‘Western’
Nexus team grew to
informal discussion of Balkan popular music has lost its usefulness, but we did meet through
like each other and
varieties: yugofolk, chalga, arabesque etc. academic networks where people know who the
now enjoy spending
others in the field are.
time together’
And yet the Nexus network came together
initially via Western academic networks? What audience do you want to reach?
This is symptomatic of one of the problems in There are a number of levels of intended audi-
the Balkans. Anthropologically, Balkan cul- ence. First, we would like to attract a Bulgar-
tures are quite similar – similar body languages, ian intellectual and academic elite to the four
communicative habits, eating habits, dress or five annual Nexus meetings. And I think
codes, home arrangements, and if there are dif- we are successful in that – people do come, get
ferences, they are regional rather than national, involved and bring their own fresh viewpoints
for instance mountains vs. plains, the Mediter- uncontaminated by the project’s jargon, which
ranean vs. the Interior – differences that have is quite useful. Beyond that, since most of our
a map other than the national political map of fellows teach in universities and Nexus changes
the Balkans. By contrast, the so-called ‘high’ their perspective, we indirectly reach their stu-
cultures of the nation states, including dents. With the final publications, we shall try
academia, have too few contacts and build dif- to influence an anonymous wider academic
ferent pictures of the Balkan neighbours. They debate, and with the policy paper – politicians
often communicate exclusively with imaginary and decision-makers.
Do you want to reach nationalists and have
you ever been accused of unpatriotic
behaviour?
I do not know that it is possible to influence
directly such an audience. We often study na-
tionalist arguments, and know how closed, te-
leological and impenetrable they can be. Con-
sequently we do not expect to have any direct
impact on ‘patriotic’ pseudo-intellectuals; in-
stead, I hope we shall influence the atmosphere
of public debate and thus have an indirect im-
pact on such circles. We have never been ac-
cused of unpatriotic behaviour; fortunately, in
Bulgaria extreme nationalism is very marginal
and has never claimed a more central role in
the public debate.
8
Centre for Advanced Study in Sofia
Project Parade: NEXUS
What are the most bizarre projects they buy, e.g. by paying attention to Nexus consists of over twenty-five case
in Nexus? whether these are Western, Bulgarian studies in different fields by different
or Turkish in origin. scholars having their own approaches
There are many what I would call origi- and viewpoints. Ultimately, these case
nal projects: for instance, those by Petya What does ‘territorialising of culture’ studies have to be combined into a
Kabakchieva, Tanya Chavdarova, and mean in the Nexus jargon? larger picture, and to this end we have
Vintila Mihailescu. Tania Chavdarova, prepared methodological guidelines to
for example, studies to what extent the This is the perception of a bond be- ensure they are compatible and do not
business mentality of small entrepre- tween a certain land and a certain cul- scatter into a chaotic mosaic. This pic-
neurs is similar in Bulgaria, Turkey and ture, a bond seen as eternal, original, ture, however, will only emerge towards
Macedonia. Petya Kabakchieva stud- existing by default. This makes cultures the end of the project.
ies the artificial formation of small re- seem almost natural. Of course, we The second difference is that the Iden-
gions which symbolically secede from oppose this perception, since it is a tool tity Reader is thematising high cultures
the nation state and develop a special of colonial symbolic power whereby whereas Nexus studies a variety of ‘acts
local identity not without the help of some regions of Europe are stigmatized of identification’ across borders. We are
NGO elites working on European and declared unfit for culture. trying to show that where we ordinarily
projects and funded from Europe. Such see Romanians, Greeks, Bulgarians or
elites have an interest in representing, What is the difference between Albanians, the actual reality is of
say, the Rhodope Mountain as a dis- Nexus and the Identity Reader, the people with extremely complex cultural
tinct region different from both Bulgaria two main projects of the Centre for characteristics, with oscillating ideas of
and Greece. It is very difficult to tell Advanced Study? cultural identity. I.e. Nexus challenges
the extent to which such Euro- the very concepts of ‘region’ and ‘iden-
Rhodopes are a fact or an ideological There are two major differences. First, tity’ by tackling the problematic points
construct. the Identity Reader has a very well de- in acts of identification – cases of cul-
fined specific editorial goal – to pro- tural fault-lines, of multiple, diffuse,
Or take Ilia Iliev’s project, ‘Price and duce a huge collection of nation-build- blurred, overlapping, cross-border
Prejudice’, which examines the way ing texts with commentary that views identification.
people are forced by poverty to buy sec- them objectively from a critical distance.
ond-hand clothes but discern symbolic The final product of Nexus, on the
hierarchical geographies in the clothes other hand, is not nearly as clear-cut. Interviewed by The Editor
‘By concentrating on how to reflect on South-
east European or Balkan identity, the Sofia
Academic Nexus project addresses one of the
more important factors that can affect proc-
esses of integration into Europe, namely the
construction of a trans-subjectively acceptable
self-image. What the Balkans/Southeast
Europe can become, and probably will be in
the future, depends to a large extent on the
idea of collective identity that the local
populations themselves possess and/or are in
the process of creating.’
Slobodan Naumovic
NEXUS Senior Fellow
No 11 // spring // 2002 9
Project Parade: The Identity Reader
TThhee YYoouutthhffuull NNeettwwoorrkk
RReeggiioonnaall IIddeennttiittyy DDiissccoouurrsseess
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Associate Professor A New Non-Nationalist Vision tional cultures. It is an attempt to transcend
of History, of a Common Cultural Heritage them. It aims to highlight similar cultural pat-
terns and cultural spaces in the region. Rather
Faculty of History,
Sofia University, The scarcity of academic communication than obliterating specific political and cultural
in the region of Central and Southeast Europe identities, it proposes to examine them against
Executive Director
has long been recognised. It is commonly, and the background of a shared or rejected regional
of CAS and
rightly, attributed to the lack of institutional identity (the ‘regional canon’) and consequently
Identity Reader Project
structures of cooperation. Underlying it, how- make them mutually accessible and heuristically
Supervisor
ever, is a deeper deficit: the absence of unified commensurate. This is where the high symbolic
frameworks of reference and interpretations of meaning of the initiative resides.
national narratives to enable comparisons be-
tween cultural phenomena of the different cul- The Identity Reader
tures in the region and create a ‘common lan-
guage’ for describing the common and the spe- How can such a regional narrative be con-
cific traits of these traditions. Nation-state-cen- structed? One possible answer, proposed by
tred narratives still dominate the way people the Identity Reader project, is: by compiling,
talk about their past and heritage. National selecting and editing an authoritative and rep-
cultures are still discussed through fundamen- resentative collection of fundamental texts that
tal texts and ideas, seen as a unique repository have contributed to, and/or reflected upon, the
of the national character and the nation’s ‘es- formation of various narratives of regional iden-
sence’. Self-centred national imaginations, as- tity in Central and Southeast Europe. This
serting the specificity and uniqueness of these collection, the so-called Identity Reader, will
canonical national cultures, still inform collec- eventually be arranged into two volumes of 550-
tive identities and political doctrines. 600 pages each. Geographically, the project
It is against this national insularity that the covers a vast range of different cultures - from
‘Regional Identity Discourses’ project has de- Turkey and Greece in the south-east to Aus-
fined its ambitious target: to create and indeed tria and Poland in the north-west, including
legitimate a non-nationalist, or perhaps a su- Bulgaria, the former Czechoslovakia, Hungary,
... this project pra-national, vision of a common cultural her- Romania, the former Yugoslavia and Albania.
is not an attempt to itage; a different way of talking about this her- Essentially, this is the area of the Habsburg
invalidate the indi- itage, a new language for discussing a com- and the Ottoman post-imperial heritage.
vidual national mon regional identity, a framework of interpre- Text selection is based on a number of con-
cultures. It is an tation that will enable us to critically examine siderations. Some texts are included because
attempt to transcend our received world-view and sense of belong- the respective national narrative is based upon
them. It aims to ing. The project, in other words, seeks to cre- them, others because they are discussions of,
highlight similar ate a regional narrative, an interpretative syn- or reflections upon, the national narrative. Yet
cultural patterns and thesis, for Central and Southeast Europe. others never became part of the cultural main-
cultural spaces It must be emphasised that this project is stream but offered alternatives to the canonical
in the region. not an attempt to invalidate the individual na- texts and can thus be considered paradigmatic
10
Centre for Advanced Study in Sofia