Vassilis Petsinis - National Identity in Serbia: The Vojvodina and a Multi-Ethnic Community in the Balkans

National Identity in Serbia

The Vojvodina and a Multi-Ethnic Community in the Balkans

Vassilis Petsinis

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I would like to cordially thank the following individuals and institutions without the help of whom this piece of work would not have been completed successfully. First of all, I am highly indebted to the European Commission, the Marie Skodowska-Curie actions in particular, and to the Johan Skytte Institute of Political Studies (University of Tartu). I am also indebted to the Centre for Baltic and East European Studies (Sdertrns Hgskola, Stockholm), Collegium Budapest (now Centre for Advanced Study at the Central European University), IESIR (Comenius University in Bratislava), New Europe College (Bucharest) and to the Herder Institute in Marburg. Then, I would like to thank my PhD supervisor Professor Judy Batt (CREES, University of Birmingham) for her steady and punctual supervision, as well as the helpful directions that she gave me while writing up my thesis on Vojvodina. In addition, I would like to thank CREES (University of Birmingham), the British Association for Slavonic and East European Studies and the coordinators of the ESRC-funded Fuzzy Statehood project for offering me various kinds of financial support between 2000 and 2004. My thanks also go to Professor Hillary Pilkington (former Head of CREES), Professor Jeremy Smith and the secretaries of the department (Ms Tricia Carr and Mrs. Marea Arries) for offering me various kinds of assistance.

I would like to express my gratitude to Professor Martyn Rady (School of Slavonic and East European Studies, University College London) for offering me some preliminary hints in regard to the coordination of my field research. In Novi Sad, I would like to thank, first of all, Professor Saa Kicoev (Head of the GIS Centre, Geography Department, University of Novi Sad), Professor Zslt Lazar (Sociology Department, Faculty of Philosophy, University of Novi Sad) and Professor Milan Prodanovi (Department of Urbanism, University of Novi Sad/Belgrade University). The aforementioned individuals dedicated much of their precious time arranging interview appointments, in the course of my field research in Vojvodina. Also, Professor Kicoev let me make use of the archive collection at the Geography Department of the University of Novi Sad, whereas Professor Lazar offered me invaluable assistance with the sociological aspect of my research.

Then, my thanks go to Dr Ratko Bubalo (Director of the Novi Sad-based refugee NGO Humanitarian Centre for Integration and Tolerance) for offering me a variety of useful data, regarding the refugee question in Serbia, and helping me have a first-hand experience with the refugees accommodated in Vojvodina. My gratitude also goes to Dr Dubravka Vali-Nedeljkovi (Director of the Novi Sad-based media NGO Novi Sad School of Journalism) for offering me lots of useful information in regard to the state of the media and press in Vojvodina and allowing me to make use of the archive collection at the Novi Sad School of Journalism. The willingness of the personnel at the library of Matica Srpska to let me make use of the institutions vast archive collection is very much appreciated as well. In Belgrade, my thanks go to Ms Dubravka Vujoevi at the Media Centre NGO and in Budapest to Mrs Iulia Chircu for letting me make use of the archive collection of the Central European University. I would also like to thank Dr Claudiu Mesaros (Philosophy Department, West University Timisoara) for helping me conduct my fieldwork in Timisoara. Last, but certainly not least, I would like to express my gratitude to all individuals interviewed in the course of my field research in Vojvodina and elsewhere (political party representatives, journalists, NGO representatives, academics, individuals employed in cultural institutions, representatives of the Serbian Orthodox clergy in Vojvodina) for the invaluable information that they offered towards my research objectives.

I would like to dedicate this piece of work to my parents for the psychological support that they have been continuously offering me throughout the years of my engagement in the academia.

This book centres on the different layers of identity among the Serbs of Vojvodina and their implications for political preferences regarding the basic structure of the state, namely either for regionalization or for the centralized model of the nation-state. The main focus is on the period from the dissolution of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia until present day. Nevertheless, this topic requires a historical background to set the Serbs as an ethno-national group in context. Particular emphasis is laid on the national identity of the Vojvodinian Serbs and the process of its formation.

The regional identity of Vojvodina is also set in historical context. This firstly sets out the regional concept of Vojvodina as a Serbian homeland, which was developed by the Serb nationalist elites and the Serb intelligentsia within the Habsburg Monarchy during the nineteenth century. Subsequently, in the Communist era, Vojvodinas regional character was redefined in terms of a socialist multicultural society and this requires a historical perspective. Reference to the broader historical context can clarify the complex relationship between centre and periphery and consequently the local understandings of the unitary model of the nation-state and the regionalist alternatives that have been proposed in Vojvodina since the year 2000.