Dear colleagues,
Issue 4, 2016, of “Südosteuropa. Journal of Politics and Society” has just been published. Orli Fridman and Krisztina Rácz are guest editors of this issue’s thematic section focusing on “Memories and Narratives of the 1999 NATO Bombing in Serbia.”
Sixteen years after the actual event, the current issue’s essays aspire at complicating a coherent portrayal of the NATO bombing by taking a closer look at the reactions, memories and commemoration practices of different sectors and communities of Serbian society by focusing on local perceptions of the intervention from the “receiving end.” Indebted to interdisciplinary social memory studies, the essays engage with the politics of memory but also the broader context of the social construction of collective remembering during and after the conflict.
Orli Fridman (Belgrade) scrutinizes the memories of Belgrade residents of different generations and divergent political orientations; Marija Mandić (Berlin) analyses 14 years of commemorative discourses and practices through the lens of the local media; Srđan Atanasovski (Belgrade) focuses on the soundscape of Belgrade during the bombardment, from government-organized concerts to the sound of sirens and elaborates on their significance as meaning-producing machines; Gruia Bădescu (Oxford) examines the spatial articulations of Serbian narratives and how they are inscribed and negotiated in urban space by different stakeholders; finally, Krisztina Rácz (Novi Sad) analyses the mnemonic practices and narratives of a group of intellectuals around Symposion, a Hungarian-language journal in the Vojvodina.
In addition, this issue hosts an essay by Jagoda Rošul-Gajić (Munich) on the role of women’s NGOs and their contribution to the advancement of gender sensitive politics and to broader democratization processes in postwar Croatia. Finally, the Travelogue section conveys the lively impressions and thoughts of a group of German graduate students after a self-organized study trip to Kosovo.
The journal is available in print from De Gruyter Oldenbourg and online at https://www.degruyter.com/view/j/soeu.2016.64.issue-4/issue-files/soeu.2016.64.issue-4.xml. The book reviews are available in open access at recension.net.
Best regards, Augusta Dimou
CONTENT
FOCUS: MEMORIES AND NARRATIVES OF THE 1999 NATO BOMBING IN SERBIA
Orli Fridman and Krisztina RáczMemories and Narratives of the 1999 NATO Bombing in Serbia. Introduction 433–437
Orli FridmanMemories of the 1999 NATO Bombing in Belgrade, Serbia 438–459
Marija MandićOfficial Commemoration of the NATO Bombing of Serbia. A Case Study of the Fifteenth Anniversary 460–481
Srđan Atanasovski‘The Song Has Kept Us’: Soundscape of Belgrade during the NATO Bombing 482–499
Gruia Bădescu‘Achieved without Ambiguity?’ Memorializing Victimhood in Belgrade after the 1999 NATO Bombing 500–519
Krisztina RáczTrauma or Entertainment? Collective Memories of the NATO Bombing of Serbia 520–543
Jagoda Rošul-GajićAgents of Change. Women’s Advocacy during the Democratization in Croatia 544–559
TRAVELOGUE
#Kosovo. Thirty students of the German Academic Foundation embarked on a self-organized seminar trip to Kosovo. A portrait of the country based on their personal impressions by Sophie Hermanns, Kevin Rieger, Johannes Stolle and Maren Weeger 560–573
BOOK REVIEWS
Béatrice von Hirschhausen / Hannes Grandits / Claudia Kraft / Dietmar Müller / Thomas SerrierPhantomgrenzen. Räume und Akteure in der Zeit neu denken (Sabine Rutar)
Abram de SwaanThe Killing Compartments. The Mentality of Mass Murder (Ger Duijzings)
Margit V. Wunsch GaarmannThe War in Our Backyard. The Bosnia and Kosovo Wars through the Lens of the German Print Media (Stefan Ihrig)
Pål Kolstø, edStrategies of Symbolic Nation-building in South Eastern Europe (Paul Reef)
Marlene SpoerriEngineering Revolution. The Paradox of Democracy Promotion in Serbia (Johanna K. Bockman)
Nevenka TrompProsecuting Slobodan Milošević. The Unfinished Trial (Wim van Meurs)