Paper short abstract:

I explore how shopping allows Albanian women in Macedonia to fashion "modern" subjectivities, reposition themselves toward a larger system of power that casts them as "backward", and articulate understandings of the "West" that disregard ethno-national divisions and center on tastes and dispositions

Paper long abstract:

In this paper I examine the practice of shopping for "Western" material goods and the meanings that this practice has for secular Muslim Albanian women in post-socialist Macedonia. Specifically, I focus on Albanian women from rural backgrounds in the capital city of Skopje who have socio-economic aspirations and acquire the habitus, or "system of dispositions" (Bourdieu 1977), of the "modern" female urbanite: that is, a woman who does not veil, converses in the Macedonian language, and shops for "in" goods at "in" places to fashion a "Western" Self. These female rural migrants in Skopje transgress conventional standards of social behavior whereby Albanian women shop in the "backward", predominantly Albanian-populated part of the city, and Macedonian women shop downtown and in the "modern", predominantly Macedonian-populated urban areas. Unlike marginalized populations elsewhere that can repudiate their stigmatized identities in pursuit of Western modernity, Albanian women in Skopje embrace them. The practice of shopping in the main mall downtown allows them not only to produce and perform in public "modern" subjectivities that are of a particular ethno-nationalist variety, namely Macedonian. In addition, shopping allows them to reposition themselves vis-à-vis a larger system of power in the country, which privileges Macedonians and casts the Albanian collectivity as "backward" and peripheral, and articulate understandings of a "Western" society that is non-hierarchical, disregards ethno-national divisions, and centers around tastes and dispositions.

Paper short abstract:

This presentation analyzes the disjunctures at play in the global regionalist culture of the Italian Nordest, arguing that the region’s simultaneous adoption of globalizing stratagems and localist politics are not contradictory practices but rather part of the same attempt to affirm the region’s modernity against a presumed national backwardness.

Paper long abstract:

In the 1980s northeastern Italy, a historically rural and poor region, witnessed the rise of a noteworthy number of small family-firms successfully targeting niche markets worldwide. Globalization favored these firms in multiple ways: while the opening of markets (EU) and the growing international demand for made-in-Italy goods ensured the success of the firms, local entrepreneurs perspicaciously produced and marketed cosmopolitan trends for the global market. During the process of assembling cosmopolitanism for global consumption, the region became the site of some of the most conservative regionalist and localist rhetorics.

Based onon fieldwork conducted in the Veneto region of the Italian North East, this paper examines the ways in which local entrepreneurs strategically deploy postmodernity to achieve a cosmopolitan edge that positions them in a modern global order and questions the tension between this pursuit of cosmopolitanism and localist politics. Considering how Italy's obsession with "backwardness" plays out both at a national and regional level, I relate the country's efforts to integrate into an imaginary geography that classifies nations according to their modernity to Veneto's globalist aspirations. Finally, I ask what kinds of exclusionary practices and new marginalities this competition for "modernity" produces.

Paper short abstract:

This paper examines an emerging form of Kurdish humorous popular culture in Turkey as an expression of Kurdishness, contextualising it with a discussion of current discourses on Turkishness and Kurdishness in Turkey as well as the discourse on minority rights introduced by EU accession negotiations.

Paper long abstract:

In the past Turkey has often dealt with its Kurdish population by denying its existence as a separate ethnic group and/or by vigorous assimilation drives. The call for Kurdish political and cultural rights has been perceived as a threat to the integrity of the Turkish state, particularly since the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) started its armed campaign in 1984. Different discourses on "Turkishness" and "Kurdishness" thus coexist and influence each other in the country. EU membership negotiations for politically active Kurds represent hope for change, as accession reports note human rights violations and policies towards minorities. It is thus hoped that EU accession negotiations can be used for political leverage in domestic issues. On the other hand, Kurds in Turkey are by no means a unified, politically mobilised community, as differences in region, education, religious affiliation, social class and degree of religiosity cut across ethnic identity. Although there are attempts by a Kurdish intelligentsia to create a Kurdish "high culture", which may even aim at targeting Kurds beyond state borders, the audience is limited because of linguistic and educational limitations and continuing state restrictions on the dissemination of Kurdish culture. In this context, the paper discusses one emerging form of humorous Kurdish popular culture based on folkloric roots which has arguably been enabled by the political struggle and EU pressure for cultural rights, but which is not overtly political itself.

Paper short abstract:

Due to marginality produced by Italy's jus sanguinis citizenship regime, "second generation" young adults formed the “G2” network in 2005. This paper considers how members of the G2 movement negotiate various levels of identity and simultaneously coalesce under the G2 umbrella.

Paper long abstract:

This paper examines the Italy's "G2" network as a response to a group's social and political marginality.  Because of the Italian jus sanguinis citizenship regime and the difficulty of obtaining naturalization even for those born and raised in Italy, the "children of immigration" often face exclusion. Even where these "new Italians" have managed local inclusion, in several widely reported incidents second generation youths have faced discrimination as "non-EU" citizens.  The "G2" network was formed in 2005 by so-called "second generation" young adults, children of immigrants and refugees/asylum-seekers living in Italy.  This association mainly organizes through its online website, blog and forum, and also operates through local groups in several Italian cities. G2 has focused on citizenship as a key issue, and over the past year it has brought the members' case for changing the citizenship law to the attention of politicians. In addition to citizenship in legal terms, there is also much discussion among G2 members of what it means to be Italian, especially if one "doesn't look" Italian.  The question of Italian identity is particularly interesting for exploring the problematic inclusion of the second generations, as it is a site of pre-existing tensions within autocthonous Italian society, given persistent North-South differences and robust local identities. This paper, then, will consider how members of the G2 variously articulate forms of identity that negotiate different levels (local, regional, national, EU, transnational, ethnic), and at the same time coalesce as a movement under the G2 umbrella.