Comparative Southeast European Studies 72, no. 4, 2025, is available in open access: https://www.degruyter.com/journal/key/soeu/72/4/html
Ensar Muharemović (Luxembourg) demonstrates how, during the year 1990, the process of democratization in Bosnia-Herzegovina was intentionally decelerated by the ruling Communist Party due to the ideological conservatism of its leadership, which directly contributed to the party’s ultimate loss of power to ethnically defined parties.
Dmytro V. Hryn et al. (all Kharkiv) impressively illustrate how flexible remote and hybrid work models effectively have contributed to Ukraine's resilience in the face of Russia's aggression, because they have helped Ukrainians to keep their country's economy active. The authors advocate for a more solid legal regulation of "non-traditional" forms of labour organisation.
Equally addressing tools conducive to resilience and effectivity, Dmytro Khutkyy (Tartu) and Olga Matveieva (Bochum) examine the interplay between the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), digital democracy, and open government in Ukraine in 2018 and 2020, showing how the combination of real-life, online, and hybrid consultation formats enabled elements of participatory, direct, and consensus democracy in post-revolutionary and pre-full-scale invasion Ukraine.
Vjosa Hamiti (Prishtina) and Lumnije Jusufi (Berlin) explore, through linguistic analysis, the sociocultural influence of German bread culture in post-1999 Kosovo, which, driven by migration and economic changes, has effectively transformed Kosovar “bread habits”.
In the open section, Mirko Savković (Munich) provides a Book Review Essay on Kosta Nikolić’s voluminous study Krajina 1991–1995, which delves into the ideologically charged story of the failed separatist proto-state of the Republic of Serbian Krajina that existed on the territory of Croatia in the first half of the 1990s. The book’s topic is of relevance and provides salient lessons for contemporary separatist and territorial conflicts globally.
Finally, the issue features five reviews of interesting new books.
Articles
Ensar Muharemović Constrained Choices: How Bosnian Communists Lost Their Party Before Losing the Elections 399
Dmytro V. Hryn, Oleg M. Yaroshenko, Oleksii Y. Tykhonovych, Dmytro A. Hryhorenko and Volodymir Pavlichenko Legal Regulation of Hybrid Work Models and Their Impact on Work-Life Balance: A Case Study of Ukraine 419
Dmytro Khutkyy and Olga Matveieva Sustainable Development, Digital Democracy, and Open Government: Co-Creation Synergy in Ukraine 436
Vjosa Hamiti and Lumnije Jusufi A Transfer of Language and Culture: German Bread and Pastries and Their Names in Kosovo 465
Book Review Essay
Mirko Savković Kosta Nikolić’s Book Krajina (1991–1995). An Extended Review 493
Book Reviews
Aleksandra Miljković Dunja Jelenković, Festival jugoslovenskog dokumentarnog i kratkometražnog filma, 1954–2004. Od jugoslovenskog socijalizma do srpskog nacionalizma 507
Francesca Sanna Anna Di Lellio, La Jugoslavia crollò in miniera. Kosovo 1989: lo sciopero di Trepça e la lotta per l’autonomia 510
Lieke Speerstra Tanja Petrović, Utopia of the Uniform. Affective Afterlives of the Yugoslav People’s Army 513
Elia Bescotti Eugen Străuțiu, Steven D. Roper, William E. Crowther, Dareg Zabarah-Chulak, Victor Juc, and Robert E. Hamilton, eds. The Armed Conflict of the Dniester. Three Decades Later 516
Emina Bužinkić Robert Rydzewski, The Balkan Route – Hope, Migration and Europeanisation in Liminal Spaces 520