Search

Since the beginning of the integration process into the European Union a continuous discourse has evolved about what characterizes 'Europe' and whether there is a common 'European identity'. Most recently, this discourse has tended to define the European 'Self' in contrast to a 'foreign' Muslim 'Other'. The debate is taking place against the background of new Muslim arrivals in Europe. However, the presence of Muslim citizens in Europe is not a recent phenomenon. This empirical research paper explores the effects this discourse has had on the perspective of Muslim youths in Kosovo on European identity. Kosovo is seen as a European country with a centuries-old Muslim presence. It seeks to further 'Europeanize' itself in order to connect with the EU. By means of qualitative in-depth interviews with young practicing Muslims in Prishtina the paper reveals that the participants have not started to view 'Europe' in any negative way. Instead, they use their positive understanding of European identity which they associate with diversity and freedom of religion for Muslims. The respondents heavily criticize their own government for misunderstanding the concept as denoting 'un-Muslim', which leads to an oppression of practicing Muslims in Kosovo in light of the country's attempt to 'be European'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article focuses on the implications of understanding ' Europeanization' as a complex, dynamic and troubled translation process. It discusses post-communist welfare in the context of variegated forms of austerity capitalism in the EU. In particular, the complex relationships between modalities of welfare, the uneven development of neo-liberalisms and the multi-scalar restructuring of welfare assemblages, are discussed in the context of the reframing of relationships between the economic, the political and the social in a period of deep crisis and austerity. Post-communist Europe cannot be conceived as a flattened map or a singular regime type. Rather, diverse and often contradictory restructurings operate in different places at different times, and political agency continues to matter. Comparing and contrasting the changing relationships between neo-liberalism, authoritarian populism and ethnicized nationalism in Hungary and Croatia provides a more nuanced understanding of the variable geometries of transnational translations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]