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The 1980s caught Albanians in Kosova in interesting social, political, and psychological circumstances. Two diametrically opposed dogmatic dilemmas took shape: “illegal groups” - considerably supported by students - demanded the proclamation of the Republic of Kosova and/or Kosova’s unification with Albania. On the other side of the spectrum, “modernists” - gathering, among others, the political and academic elites - pushed for the improvement of rights of Kosovars guaranteed under the “brotherhood and unity” concept advocated within the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (SFRY). This paper outlines the nature of demonstrations that took place in March and April 1981 and the corresponding responses of political and academic elites. Stretching beyond symbolic academic reasons - demands for better food and dormitory conditions - the study points to the intense commitment of the students to their demands, often articulated in nationalistic terms. Was it inevitable that the structure of the SFRY would lead to those living in Kosova as a non-Slavic majority in a federation of “Southern Slavs” to articulate demands for national self-rule? It is necessary to highlight these political and social complexities through analytical approaches in order to track the students’ goals and to reexamine assumptions behind the “modernist” agenda. In that vein, the paper analyzes the conceptual connections and differences between student reactions and modernists’ positions during the historical period under discussion here. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This analysis considers the impact of the demonstrations that occurred in Kosovo in spring 1981. They shocked Federal Yugoslavia and re-opened the Kosovo question as an issue in European and international diplomacy. They simultaneously intensified and consolidated the Albanian national movement in Kosovo, although activists held differing views as to the best solution to the problem. Another result of the demonstrations was a deterioration in Albano–Yugoslav relations over territorial and nationalist issues. The “Kosovo Spring” placed Albania in conflict with Yugoslavia, which declared a state of emergency in Kosovo on 2 April 1981 and suppressed the demonstrations by force. The events in Kosovo had the effect of redefining the whole Albanian question. The maturity of the Albanian response led international opinion to take Albania more seriously. For its part, Albania was impelled to evaluate more highly the response of Western countries to events in Kosovo and initiate a more realistic approach to the West—albeit tentatively—despite the persistence of deep ideological differences. The demonstrations of 1981 had a substantial effect on Albanian state policy regarding Kosovo. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper is devoted to studying current strategies in the transformation of cultural landscape in postwar Kosovo. I regard cultural landscape, i.e. a piece of Earth's surface deliberately shaped by man, as an extension of the so-called socially constructed reality (Berger and Luckmann, 1966). In some cases this symbolization is a strategic part of a nation-building project, or just a way to declare one's own presence, identity, or affiliation. The creation of new heroes is one of the initial steps within the strategies of a nation-building process, as it forms an essential prerequisite for the feeling of a common and shared history. This article analyses the spectrum of personalities symbolically welcomed in Kosovo since the 1990s. The Republic of Kosovo is de jure a multi-ethnic society consisting of Albanian, Serbian, and other communities, and is presented as such to the international community. However, the current strategies of symbolic nation-building deeply contradict the declared aspirations to build a common state and national identity among all of the peoples living in Kosovo. My aim is to negotiate the strategies of memorialization in postwar Kosovo with a focus on this balancing between civic (as desired) and ethnic (as de facto realized) models of nation-building. The data for the study were collected during several fieldwork trips in Kosovo (2010-2014). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]