This research represents a socio-political and cultural study of the intersection between engaged knowledge production and social activism in former Yugoslavia, focusing on students' and feminist movements, as well as persecutions of political activism in the public sphere. These events have managed to go beyond ethno-national divides and continue to foster solidarities beyond current borders. At this historical juncture an opportunity presents itself to seize the potential of social activist movements and the productively engaged academia: to deepen the networks around common issues in order to find innovative models that drive societal change in a more equitable direction. This project harnesses the analytic resources provided by current socio-political studies on transformative politics and cultural and anthropological studies. Through it we investigate how the engaged knowledge production and transformative social movements, which insist on the politics of equality, shape political and cultural imaginaries. How are the current student movements (re)shaped by local, regional and global demands in the context of everyday life? What are the effects of the systematic re-structuring of public goods in terms of security and freedom and which movements have mobilised the public towards the politics of equality? How has the feminist movement challenged inequalities? And how can we engage with transformative potential of these movements for the production of relevant knowledge?
Project leaders and contacts: Ms Jasmina Husanović (jasminamak@gmail.com); Mr Damir Arsenijević (arsenijevicd@gmail.com); Ms Jelena Petrović (jelenaxpetrovic@gmail.com)

University of New York, Tirana (Albania): Beyond ethnic divisions: the underestimated dimension of social divisions in the Balkans and their impact on social cohesion and democracy (February 2010-January 2011)

The Balkans has become the epitome of ethnic quarrels that have sometimes reached levels of brutality comparable with that of World War II. While the visibility of ethnic violence has attracted media and scholarly attention, little research has been conducted on other social divisions in the Balkans and their impact on social cohesion. The fact that the region is still dominated by a patriarchal culture, that racial minorities are openly despised and marginalised and that homosexuals continue to live hidden have remained overshadowed by the tragedy of Vukovar, the Srebrenica massacre, and other dramatic events. There is also a dearth of research about the role played by the newly emerging class divisions. Our research focuses on gender, racial, sexual preferences and class division in the Balkans, and how they affect and are affected by ethnic divisions. We argue that, while the Balkan societies of the 1990s were generally unified around the idea of the nation, the early 2000s saw a growing division among ethnic groups. Such divisions, while helping to diminish the national mobilisation against other ethnic groups, represent both new challenges to and opportunities for citizenship, social cohesion and democracy. Our research will attempt to highlight the incompatibility between ethnic and socio-economic divisions. We argue that nationalism and its extreme outcome, ethnic conflict, might not be produced by socio-economic deprivations, but emerge in conditions of highly uniformed ethnic groups where individual belonging cannot be identified with other social categories.
Project leader and contact: Mr Ridvan Peshkopia (ridvanpeshkopia@yahoo.com)

Centre for Interdisciplinary Postgraduate Studies (CIPS), University of Sarajevo (Bosnia and Herzegovina): Feminisms in post-socialist Muslim contexts (February 2010- June 2011)

This research will study Muslim women feminists in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) and Kosovo in order to understand and explain the ways women from these two countries perceive their belonging to feminist and national groups within the post-socialist and post-conflict contexts there. Research on belonging to national groups to date has rarely included the experiences of indigenous Muslim women in Europe, in the Balkans, and specifically in BiH and Kosovo. Although there has been significant research on feminisms in Muslim societies during the last 15 years, this focused on the Arab countries, Iran and Turkey, or Muslim communities that had migrated to Europe during the post-1960s. Our research is significant as studies on state and nation-building rarely entail a gender perspective and do not provide a feminist outlook on these important processes. We will thus provide a woman's experience and understanding of the nation-building processes in BiH and Kosovo, the effect of the nation-building processes on the development of feminisms in these countries, and the understanding on the interaction between women's feeling of belongingness to feminist and national groups. The research will identify key issues and concepts required to understand the subject of the study and test them by means of focus group discussions with feminist Muslim women. This will be achieved with the life histories method of eight women in each country that will be analysed through content analysis.
Project leader and contact: Ms Zilka Spahic-Siljak (zilka@cps.edu.ba; zilkas@hotmail.com)

Center for Research and Policy Making, Skopje (Macedonia): Mapping the leaders in Macedonia and Albania: elite potential for promoting positive social change (March 2010-February 2011)

The goal of this project is to map the top of the social hierarchy (elites) in Macedonia and Albania, comparing the situation of the elites at the end of communism 1989 and today. The mapping of the characteristics of the elites (education, family status, economic status, political, years in position of power, etc.) will provide more information on the type of elite development (circulation vs. reproduction) that has taken place in these countries. The attitudes of these individuals on key issues will also be examined (religion, political ideals, family, economic and social issues, gender, etc.). A nation-wide survey will provide the expectations from and the opinions of the general public in Macedonia and Albania of their leaders. To add the regional dimension, three young researchers from Serbia, Montenegro and Kosovo will examine the connection between their respective countries and the members of the Macedonian and Albanian elites. In addition, a special effort will be made to identify a significant number of women leaders who will provide more information on the gender element of exercising leadership in these countries. To facilitate the networking and to elevate the capacity of the research team, a special training will be organised with an expert in elite interviewing and research, in close collaboration with our RRPP partners. Our findings can provide a suitable basis for additional research or the development of approaches to influence productive participation of members of the elite, in order to foster positive social change in these countries.
Project leader: Mr Zidas Daskalovski
Contact: Ms Nikola Stalevski (stalevski@crpm.org.mk)

South East European University (SEEU), Tetovo (Macedonia): Brain drain and the role of Diasporas in promoting knowledge and empowering the marginalised in the Balkans (March 2010 - June 2011)

International migration is typical for many small, and, in the case of Kosovo and Macedonia, landlocked, economies with limited market size and high institutional barriers to Foreign Direct Investment. Internal conflicts, civil unrest, high unemployment (Albania 15%, Kosovo 40%; Macedonia 31%) and poverty rates (18%, 44%, 19%) since the onset of transition to a market economy have further reinforced the migration pressure (emigrants' stock of population: 27%, 20-25%, 18%) (2005 data). Skill migration, known as brain drain, is often a defining characteristic of cross-border migration flows. In the wake of accession to the EU, increasingly appearing as the manifest destiny of the Balkan countries, the prospective members experiencing significant emigration ought to consider the important policy-relevant question how the Diaspora can be leveraged to maximise the developmental potential of migration in the wake of the evolving international migration regime. There have been few studies that systematically examine the role of the Diasporas from the Western Balkans in promoting political, social and economic reforms in the region. Thus the aims of this study are: to investigate the size, nature and the characteristics of the Albanian, Macedonian, and Kosovar skilled Diaspora; to assess the risks of brain drain; to assess the differences and similarities between Albanian, Macedonia and Kosovar skilled Diasporas; and to make recommendations for leveraging Diasporas with an aim of reducing the regional and ethnic disparities through the promotion of knowledge networks.
Project leader and contact: Mr Abylmenaf Sejdini (a.sejdini@seeu.edu.mk)