Preliminary Programme

Wed 22 March
    8:30
    10:45
    14:15
    16:30

Thu 23 March
    8:30
    10:45
    14:15
    16:30

Fri 24 March
    8:30
    10:45
    14:15
    16:30

Sat 25 March
    8:30
    10:45
    14:15
    16:30

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Wednesday 22 March 2006 10:45
P-2 NAT01 Borders and Nations
Room P
Network: Chair: Ad Knotter
Organizers: - Discussants: Martin van der Velde, Ton Zwaan
John Ashbrook : The goat or the bull?: The politicization of national and regional identities in the Croatian Istrian borderland in the 1990s
As did Croatian nationalists during the war in Croatia and Bosnia-Hercegovina when describing the essential social and cultural features of the Serbian nation, Istrian Croats too were guilty of the same perpetuation of stereotypes when it came to separating themselves from their co-nationals or expressing ethnic solidarity with them. This ... (Show more)
As did Croatian nationalists during the war in Croatia and Bosnia-Hercegovina when describing the essential social and cultural features of the Serbian nation, Istrian Croats too were guilty of the same perpetuation of stereotypes when it came to separating themselves from their co-nationals or expressing ethnic solidarity with them. This discourse often revolved around the issue of symbolic boundaries between the East and the West in differentiating a supposedly “Eastern” national identity and a “Western,” regional identity in Istrian Croatia. Divisive interpretations of identity were adopted by Istrian politicians in defining the Croatian population living in this borderland between the "barbarous Balkans" and the "civilized West."

The study targets Croatian Istria, a traditional European borderland, and illustrates how cognitive divisions were adapted and adopted by political actors in the politicization of identities and in mobilizing political support.
Because of the question of pure and hybrid identities in this borderland, politicians had to offer differing intrepretations of who the Istrian Croats were. Instead of focusing on different national groups as did the Croatian intellectuals and nationalists in the late 1980s and early 1990s, Istrian regionalist politicians
and intellectuals suggested that Croatian Istrians had a different mentality than their co-nationals, especially those perceived as
Hercegovinan Croats and hard-line nationalists. These non-Istrian Croats were portrayed as having a “balkan” nature and were the lackeys of the nationalist, corrupt ruling party, the Croatian Democratic Alliance (HDZ). In opposition, the HDZ portrayed Istrian Croats as strictly Croatian and victims of external pressures which encouraged the development of an artificial. hybrid regional identity for political purposes. I conclude that the regional movement, led by the Istrian Democratic Assembly (IDS), succeeded in mobilizing the population of Istria, including a significant number of Istrian Croats, due to its
manipulation of the existing nesting balkanisms among the indigenous population of the Istrian borderland in the 1990s. (Show less)

Sophie Bouwens : Communicating on commuting. Cross-border labour from the Dutch to the German part of the Euregio Meuse-Rhine in the Dutch regional press, 1955-2000
This paper discusses the characterisation of commuters from the Dutch to the German part of the Euregio Meuse-Rhine (EMR) in Dutch regional newspapers, between 1955 and 2000. This can both tell us something about how commuting was perceived, and about how different actors tried to shape people’s ideas about commuting. ... (Show more)
This paper discusses the characterisation of commuters from the Dutch to the German part of the Euregio Meuse-Rhine (EMR) in Dutch regional newspapers, between 1955 and 2000. This can both tell us something about how commuting was perceived, and about how different actors tried to shape people’s ideas about commuting. The period from 1955 to 2000 shows a significant shift in the way commuters were described. From 1955 until the late 1970s newspaper articles were predominantly negative about cross-border labourers and depicted them as selfish profiteers of the then favourable economic situation in Germany, who ignored the interests of their country, region and family. In the late 1970s commuters got to be approached in a much more positive way. They were then portrayed as pioneers of European integration. At the same time they were characterised as victims of the slow progress that was made in the field of harmonising European social and fiscal policies. The changing characterisation of commuters will be related to the actual (quantitative) development of the commuting flows to Germany, developments in the political, economic and sociocultural context and the shifting perspective from which the articles were written. (Show less)

Huib Ernste : Borders beyond identity politics
Identity politics assumes that there are established identities to be defended, displayed, negotiated and offensively established. In contrast on the basis of the social theoretic work of Merleau Ponty and Helmuth Plessner, I want to argue in favour of a more contingent view of identity which also brings the potential ... (Show more)
Identity politics assumes that there are established identities to be defended, displayed, negotiated and offensively established. In contrast on the basis of the social theoretic work of Merleau Ponty and Helmuth Plessner, I want to argue in favour of a more contingent view of identity which also brings the potential chances offered by border crossings to the front. On the other hand I would like to point to the impossibility of free flowing identities. This different conceptualisation of identities also enables a more constructive view of the role of borders in the new Europe. (Show less)



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