EU, Europe Unfinished : Mediating Europe and the Balkans in a Time of Crisis

What is the meaning of the Balkans in the early 21st century? Former Yugoslav countries seek a self-flattering alliance with ‘the West’ via EU membership, while the Union’s citizens increasingly declare to be ‘Eurosceptic’. At the same time, economic turmoil in countries like Greece confronts massive incoming waves of refugees, for whom Europe’s south-eastern borders are the nearest shelter. In this time of crisis, the Balkans return on the agenda as a parable of Europe’s haunting questions about its future. EU, Europe Unfinished brings together established and emerging media and cultural scholars to explore colliding visions of space and identity within a declining continent. Whereas Europe imagines the Balkans to be the source of its nearest trouble, the region envisions Europe as a refuge from ongoing post-socialist transition. The book adopts a variety of critical perspectives – from media and policy analysis to anthropology, art history and autobiography – to investigate where Europe is headed with the Balkans in its skein, 25 years after the fall of the Iron Curtain. Contents Acknowledgements Introduction Why the Balkans, Why Now, Who Cares? Europeanising Re-assembling and Disciplining Social Europe Limitations of European Media Policy in the Balkans Renaming The Renaming Machine in the Balkans as a Strategy of “Accumulation by Dispossession” Balkan Mimesis Representing ‘Europe Unfinished’ in Bosnia and Herzegovina The Balkans Go Global EUrientation Anxieties Accessing Transitional Aesthetics How We Survived Europe (and Never Laughed) The Foreigners Conclusion Can Western Europe Be at Home in the Balkans? Index About the Contributors Explores the rapidly changing relationship between the Balkans and the EU in a time of crisis