Paper Short Abstract:

The paper is focused on constructing, deconstructing, and redefining social and cultural boundaries through the case of a community in North Macedonia, existing outside current identity frameworks such as ethnicity or nationality, and navigating this challenge within contemporary political, economic, and social developments in national and transnational contexts.

Paper Abstract:

The paper will discuss how the community members understand, construct, and define the group's social and cultural boundaries, and how cultural differences and boundaries, as well as the social construction of these boundaries, shape their identity. It will reflect on a case study focusing on a community of Slavic-speaking Muslims in a larger village in North Macedonia, which has been based on ethnographic field research. How is this image being redefined by the Macedonian majority? However, is contact with the majority the key factor shaping the contemporary life of this group, considering that most male residents work abroad, and the community relies heavily on remittances? Moreover, the village has been undergoing rapid depopulation over the past 20 years due to economic migration. Could transnational relationships and connections, therefore, hold greater relevance in understanding their current dynamics? And how do they shape the boundaries of the group?

The discussion will encompass the perception of economic migration and transnational connections, the perspective of the majority population, relationships with non-Muslim and Muslim communities in the region, and the impact of political changes, considering the current dimensions of Orientalism, Balkanism, and Occidentalism.