At the edge of Europe: Balkan as a European periphery

Rok, strany: 2012, 539 - 555

The goal of this article is to desribe and explain the ways how Balkan is constructed and perceived as a metageographical and metaphorical concept. Author discusses the flexibility of demarcation of the Balkan borders in the mental maps and the flexibility of the category of the Balkan as well. In this article it is assumed that the relation between ‘Europe’ and ‘Balkan’ is in fact relation between the power centre and the periphery. Thus Balkan is orientalised and quasi-colonialised by the ‘Europe’ through the mechanisms related to the power discourses, ways of reporting, thinking and perceiving the Balkan. Moreover, the author suggests that the final consequence of such discourses is manifested in the policy of the European institutions towards some Balkan countries. The author´s argumentation is based on the comparison of orientalist and balkanist discourses and on the reactions to poscolonial studies that come from the Balkan researchers themselves.

ISO 690:

Karásek, M. 2012. At the edge of Europe: Balkan as a European periphery. In Slovenský národopis / Slovak Ethnology, vol. 60, no.5, pp. 539-555. 1339-9357.

APA:

Karásek, M. (2012). At the edge of Europe: Balkan as a European periphery. Slovenský národopis / Slovak Ethnology, 60(5), 539-555. 1339-9357.