Cultures of Crisis in Southeast Europe

The history of the Balkan Peninsula of the last two centuries is marked by deep transformations and upheavals. The emergence and disappearance of states, ethnic conflicts and wars, changes of political systems, economic crises, migration movements and natural disasters are the more visible of such upheavals. Most of them have been experienced as deep crises that forced people to adapt to often radically new situations. All too often crisis management became a permanent way of life. The papers focus on the cultures of crisis, on the reactions of societies or individuals to them: on their impact on everyday life, on peoples'strategies of coping, on the processes of adaptation, and on peoples'attitudes.