Svilar Predrag: Medijska konstrukcija zapadnog Balkana

Predrag Svilar: Media construction of the Western Balkans

How to start writing a paper about the "Western Balkans" is a difficult decision. Should all the stratification of the genesis and the very existence of such a definition of this part of Europe in which we live begin with historical and (or) political and (or) geographical foundations, opportunities, reasons and facts? Should we emphasize the geopolitical, cultural, connotative-symbolic or media aspects of the construction of regional identity, a region that during its history was never recognized and determined in that way? Should we start discussing whether the existence of the discursive Western Balkans is a "step" or a "step away from" the full integration of the societies covered by this definition into a culturally and politically united Europe in the making and whether it is a step towards recognizing their cultures as constitutive, works of European cultural heritage? But this book will begin with two questions that lie behind all these "big ones", and which will determine the context of the analysis. So - is the existence of the Western Balkans a "metabalkanization" of the Balkans? There is no more balkanization and balkanism as reference frames for "studying" processes, societies, phenomena in the Balkans, but the balkanization of the very ontologized understanding of the Balkans. And, secondly, how did the epistemological sediments of the terms Balkan, Balkanism, Balkanization arise, that is, are they the product of the immanence of the Balkans, as a geopolitical and cultural absolute entity, or are they the product of a discursive construction. imaginary Balkans? If they are the product of discursive construction, what social forces have the power to name, define and shape the subjectivity of regional identities? What does the fact that there are no Northern, Eastern and Southern Balkans as real social facts say, but only the Western Balkans and (the whole) Balkans mean? Does the Subject thus mapped, the Western Balkans, have a Self outside of the Western Balkan discourse, that is, does it possess enough identity homogeneity and distinctiveness to be recognized as a realistically existing regional entity outside of that discourse. Does its definition lack its own self-recognition, which would distinguish it from other regional definitions based on inherent characteristics, and therefore one can conclude that its distinctiveness derives from a perception constructed outside its framework? In accordance with these questions, one more thing arises - does the emergence of the "Western Balkans" show that balkanization, as a "notorious" term of disintegration, was imposed on the Balkans, when the very entity climate of the "accused" gave birth to balkanization, balkanizes exactly the same discourse by which the Balkans acquired that pejorative definition?