Beyond Ethnic Divisions: The Underestimated Dimension of Social Divisions in the Balkans and Their Impact on Social Cohesion and Democracy

Peshkopia, Ridvan (2019) Beyond Ethnic Divisions: The Underestimated Dimension of Social Divisions in the Balkans and Their Impact on Social Cohesion and Democracy. [Study]

Study description

The Beyond Ethnic Division projects aims at testing some existing theories on ethnic divisions and nationalism, as well as establishing new explanatory models that would improve our knowledge on ethnicity, nationalism, ethnic conflict and multiculturalism. This project focuses on the role of other social divisions as represented by aggregate data accumulated on Balkan nationalism. The powerful mobilizing capabilities of nationalism have often overshadowed and, arguably, shaped other social aspects of multi-ethnic societies. In turn, social divisions are also expected to impact nationalistic spirit. However, the fractious nature of nationalism and its many faces make a general theory of nationalism nearly impossible; thus we have decided to tackle topically, and interdisciplinary, our research questions. Therefore, the development of the project includes a number of papers that develop explanations from different disciplines and sub-disciplines: Social psychology, sociology, comparative politics and international relations.

Keywords:	ethnic divisions, social divisions, Balkans
Depositing User:	Jelena Banovic
Date Deposited:	22 Oct 2019 12:39
Last Modified:	22 Oct 2019 12:39
URI:	http://dcs.ien.bg.ac.rs/id/eprint/35
Additional details Additional details Creators: Creators Email Peshkopia, Ridvan UNSPECIFIED Type of data: qualitative data Research funder: RRPP Study period: From To 1 February 2010 1 January 2011 Temporal coverage: From To 2010 2010 Date: 11 August 2019 Geographic coverage: Albania, Kosovo, Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia Study method: The development of the project includes a number of papers that develop explanations from different disciplines and sub-disciplines: Social psychology, sociology, comparative politics and international relations. The research team collected and analyzed survey data based on these facets of society within five Balkan countries: Albania, Kosovo, Macedonia, Montenegro and Serbia. Some of the research analyses data came from distinct countries while others build on data from the entire region. Methods used in separate paper resulting from project. Intergroup Contact Theory and the Albanians' Feelings toward Greeks - The intergroup contact theory was tested with the case of effects that contact makes on Albanians’ perceptions of Greeks through regression analysis of both personal and aggregate data, thus allowing to control for group reactions arguably generated from intergroup contact. Models that explain the effect of contact on Albanians' temperature feelings toward Greeks were build, as well as two control cases: The Kosovar Albanians' feeling temperature toward Greeks and the Albanians' feeling temperature towards Serbs and Roma. One Ethnic Group or Two: Prejudice and Exposure among Montenegrins and Serbs in the Independent Montenegro - The intergroup contact theory was tested. Descriptive statistics of the feeling temperature of Montenegro's four main ethnic groups for each other and two other minor ethnic groups who live in Montenegro: Croats and the Roma were conducted. People's feeling temperature toward the Macedonians and Greeks was probed in order to inquire whether some cultural similarities and differences outside the Montenegrin context, but within the Balkan political context, might count for people's feeling temperatures toward them. Three predictive models of temperature feelings of ethnic Albanians, Bosniaks/Muslims and ethnic Serbs toward ethnic Montenegrins were done. Migration Experiences as Cultural Capital: Evidence from Five Countries - Does exposure to foreign cultures help to reduce prejudices among the Balkan people from other ethnic groups? The attempt to answer this question was made by building models that test the effects of migration to Western societies (key variable), other Balkan countries (control variable) and the effects not migrating (control variable), on people's attitudes towards outgroup members. Beyond Ethnic Divisions: The Impact of Fear, Class, Gender and Exposure in the Balkans Imagination - Fear, class, gender and exposure have been among the factors that arguably impact people's attitudes toward out-group members. These factors as variables were combined in new models and tested with a new dataset generated from public opinion surveys. Contact Theory, Consociational Theory and the Divided Balkans - Both, the effect of contact and consociational practices in reducing prejudices among out-group members from a rival ethnic group in the Balkans were empirically tested. Comparisons were drawn among societies that implement consociational practices; those who don't can help to reveal the effects of consociational practices on social cohesion in ethnically divided societies of the Balkans. Fear and Exposure: Ethnicity, Class and Race in the New Kosovar Society - The relationship between Albanians and the Serbian minority in Kosovo was analyzed. By employing simultaneous regression equations; a method that measures relationship strength, accounting for the mutual effects of a would-be cause and a would-be effect in both directions. Immigrants and Ethnic Minorities: The Rocky Relationship - Several models that try to explain feelings, perceptions and policy preferences of minorities as quasi-experimental groups, and majorities as quasi-control groups were build. Accounting for the New Dimension of Post-Socialist Cultural Capital: Ethnicity and Migration Experiences as Predictors of the New Balkan Social Stratification – Argument was made that migration experiences help improve one's social class, while the prediction of social class by ethnic status (as defined by belonging to a majority or minority ethnic group) remains more complicated. Argument was tested stating that the exclusion from state jobs has forced Balkan ethnic minorities to rely on private business, even during communism, thus becoming better positioned in the emerging markets of the last two decades using data collected through public opinion surveys. Albanians and Serbs: Fears, Perceptions and Prejudices - The contact hypothesis was tested, this time by analyzing the effects that contact has on two major contenders among the Balkan ethnic rivalries: Albanians and Serbs. The main focus was to modify the existing claims that, for inter-group contacts to curb intergroup prejudices, four social conditions should be in place: (1) Equal group status within the situation; (2) common goals; (3) inter-group cooperation; and (4) the support of authorities, law or custom. Resource language: English Metadata language: English Publisher: UK Data Archive Copyright holders: RRPP Contact email address: ridvanpeshkopia@yahoo.com Last Modified: 22 Oct 2019 12:39