Who constitutes the people, how and why are questions that have shaped the scholarship on Southeastern Europe across the disciplines of legal studies, political science, anthropology and history. Historical narratives and their contemporary iterations create the – often contested – frames of nationhood that set the discursive boundaries of who ‘the people’ are, vindicating why some groups are left outside of the parameters of the nation. In a similar vein, constitutions and citizenship laws delimit who are those who are formally accepted as ‘the people’ and what rights they have, excluding those who – for a range of reasons – do not conform to the political vision of the national community. Drawing on examples and experiences of the post-Yugoslav states and Albania, this seminar establishes an interdisciplinary dialogue on how narratives and laws are used to create ‘the people’.
Organiser: Jelena Dzankic (EUI – Robert Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies)