Race and the Yugoslav Region Postsocialist, Post-Conflict, Postcolonial?
Produktdetaljer
Biographical note
Catherine Baker is Senior Lecturer in Twentieth Century History at the University of Hull<p>'Catherine Baker bravely focuses on what many scholars working on Yugoslavia, post-Yugoslav nations, and/or the Balkans have avoided or not been able to grapple with: race.'<br />Sociology of Race and Ethnicity<br /><br />'The book is a poignant study of race and references an extensive and rich amount of literature. It fills an important gap in scholarship on Yugoslavia and Southeast Europe which often lacks a critical analysis of race. I believe it is a necessary read for those interested in Southeast and East European Studies, as well as postsocialism studies. Those interested in critical race theory, postcolonial studies, cultural studies, history, and anthropology will obtain a great deal from the text.'<br />The Anthropology of East Europe Review</p>
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This is the first book to situate the territories and collective identities of former Yugoslavia within the politics of race – not just ethnicity – and the history of how ideas of racialised difference have been translated globally. The book connects critical race scholarship, global historical sociologies of ‘race in translation’ and south-east European cultural critique to show that the Yugoslav region is deeply embedded in global formations of race. In doing this, it considers the everyday geopolitical imagination of popular culture; the history of ethnicity, nationhood and migration; transnational formations of race before and during state socialism, including the Non-Aligned Movement; and post-Yugoslav discourses of security, migration, terrorism and international intervention, including the War on Terror and the present refugee crisis.
An electronic edition of this book is freely available under a Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND) licence.
Introduction: what does race have to do with the Yugoslav region?
1 Popular music and the ‘cultural archive’
2 Histories of ethnicity, nation and migration
3 Transnational formations of race before and during Yugoslav state socialism
4 Postsocialism, borders, security and race after Yugoslavia
Conclusion
Index
Numerous scholars have explored the former Yugoslavia as a site of ethnopolitical violence, shaped by the legacies of state socialism and its collapse. Others have adapted postcolonial thought to explain the marginalisation of the Balkans within Europe. But up to now, the question of race and what it means for the region has rarely been seriously considered.
In this book, Catherine Baker connects critical race scholarship, global historical sociologies of race in translation, and south-east European cultural critique to situate the territories and collective identities of former Yugoslavia within the politics of race. Beginning with an investigation of demographic changes in popular culture, she traces the intersection of ideas and peoples to demonstrate how historically constituted racial formations organise Yugoslav politics in the present. South-east European studies treats race with exceptionalism, subsuming it into ethnicity and nationhood. Important interventions against this assumption often go unheard. Building on the work of transnational media scholars and intersectional feminist theorists, Baker argues for a mode of connection that positions the region within global legacies of colonialism, slavery and ‘race’, thereby revealing important truths about Yugoslavia’s place in the world.
Race and the Yugoslav region is essential reading for students and lecturers in postcolonial studies, post-Yugoslav/East European studies and global history. It will also be of interest to general readers seeking new ways of looking at the Yugoslav region in global context.