“These constituted ‘extra-institutional’ rituals through which the regime claimed legitimacy, the identity and unity of the nationalist-populist movement were forged, and which established a ‘plebiscitary’ form of legitimation, parallel to that associated with the representative institutions of the socialist and post-socialist period and reinforced the ‘charismatic’ authority of Milošević.“
research
Culture, Politics and Identity in Former Yugoslavia
The chapter approaches the disintegration of former Yugoslavia by locating and analysing the deployment of populist technologies of power and the mobilization of nationalist discourses in the narration of the past, present and future of the Yugoslav republics. It explores the role of societal, and political memory, public rituals and moral panics in the construction of the post-Yugoslav peoples and the often violent conflict that marked the breakup of Yugoslavia
Inter-ethnic Violence and Gendered Constructions of Ethnicity in former Yugoslavia
This article constitutes an attempt to put forward some suggestions towards constructing a framework of understanding the processes of social construction of sexuality and gender identity within the context of the ethnic conflict, and of nationalist/ populist politics in former Yugoslavia. In particular, it focuses on the ways in which masculinist discourse is articulated to the politics of ethnicity in former Yugoslavia, by examining the definition and treatment of women as ‘biological reproducers of the nation’ through the discourses and policy proposals of moral majority nationalist and pro-life movements in Croatia and Slovenia, and of the nationalist movement and regime in Serbia, and the use of rape and sexual assault against women as ‘weapons’ in the ethnic conflict in Bosnia and other republics of former Yugoslavia.
Nationalism, Mass Communications and Public Rituals in Former Yugoslavia: The Case of Serbia
This paper explores two significant areas in which mass communication has been central in the maintenance and spread of nationalism and the process of disintegration of the People’s Federal Republic ofYugoslavia as a result of the intensification of the ‘ethinicization’ or ‘nationalization’ of its constituent units and their institutions: the performance of public rituals and the formation of moral panics.
Books
Brian Jenkins & Spyros A.Sofos (eds) (1996) Nation & Identity in Contemporary Europe, London: Routledge
Articles
Spyros A. Sofos (1996) Inter-ethnic Violence and Gendered Constructions of Ethnicity in former Yugoslavia, Social Identities, 2:1, 73-92
Spyros A. Sofos (1996) Nationalism, mass communications and public rituals in former Yugoslavia: The case of Serbia, Contemporary Politics, 2:1, 123-132
Spyros A. Sofos (1996) ‘From “Yugoslav” to National Cultures: Ethnic Conflict and the Nationalization of the Public Spheres of Former Yugoslavia’ Res Publica, 2.
Chapters
Spyros A. Sofos (2001) ‘Culture, Media and the Politics of Disintegration in Former Yugoslavia’, in T. Allen & J. Seaton (eds), The Media of Conflict: War Reporting and Representations of Ethnic Violence, London: Zed Press.
spyros a sofos 