Southeastern Europe - Brill Journal

06/11/2025

𝗚𝘂𝗲𝘀𝘀 𝘄𝗵𝗮𝘁...? 🧐
A new is on the horizon! 🔭✨

Anna Krasteva, Editor-in-Chief of SEEU, recently held preliminary talks about a Special issue on digitalisation and memory-making in new media. 💭📱🌐

A particularly fascinating angle will be the intergenerational perspective: how different generations, with varying exposure to, familiarity with, and approaches to social media and digital practices, (re)read events and shape their memories differently. 🧠🔍

It will be guest-edited by four young scholars based in Ljubljana, Belgrade, and Leipzig: Ajda Hedžet, Melika Mahmutović, Milan Varda, and Rebecca Grossi (also part of the SEEU team 😉).

While we are still defining the theoretical and conceptual framework, we are excited to start sharing the news and sparking interest 💥💡
Hence: 𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘺 𝘵𝘶𝘯𝘦𝘥! We will keep you updated as the project progresses 🔜📣

29/10/2025

𝗣𝗼𝘀𝘁-𝗗𝗮𝘆𝘁𝗼𝗻 𝗕𝗼𝘀𝗻𝗶𝗮 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗛𝗲𝗿𝘇𝗲𝗴𝗼𝘃𝗶𝗻𝗮:
𝗥𝗲𝗳𝗹𝗲𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗼𝗻 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗣𝗮𝘀𝘁, 𝗘𝗻𝘃𝗶𝘀𝗶𝗼𝗻𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗙𝘂𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗲 🇧🇦

Is there a way out of Dayton?
👉 How can we transform an important of Southeastern Europe into a truly transformative and influential event?

This was the focus of the meeting between Prof. Lejla Balic, co-editor of the upcoming Special Issue, and Prof. Anna Krasteva, Editor-in-Chief of .
The Issue, provocatively titled "BiH as a Failed State and Defective Democracy: No Way Out of Dayton?", raises urgent questions about the country’s political trajectory three decades after the Dayton Agreement.

The planned for next fall 🍁 aims to take this debate further: reflecting on the post-Dayton legacy and the anniversary of the first post-Dayton elections, while drawing lessons and inspiring future-oriented reforms and transformations.

Join us for this important moment of dialogue and reimagination of BiH’s democratic 🌍💬

23/10/2025

😇💆‍♀️ After the marathon, it's time to with some inspiring reading!

Prof. Rudi Rizman and his newly translated book (🇭🇷, 2024):
𝐃𝐫𝐮𝐬̌𝐭𝐯𝐨 𝐢 𝐏𝐨𝐥𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐤𝐚 𝐮 𝐃𝐨𝐛𝐚 𝐑𝐞𝐭𝐫𝐨𝐭𝐨𝐩𝐢𝐣𝐞 - 𝐓𝐞𝐦𝐞 𝐢𝐳 𝐏𝐨𝐥𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐜̌𝐤𝐞 𝐒𝐨𝐜𝐢𝐨𝐥𝐨𝐠𝐢𝐣𝐞 (eng. : "Society and Politics in the Age of Retrotopia - Themes from Political Sociology")
📚 Publisher: Srednja Europa
🔢 ISBN: 978-953-387-0359

💡 Rizman's book is focused on the phenomenon of through the lenses of democratic theory, moral theory, global politics, xenophobia, politics of the divison of spheres of interest, nationalism, and crisis of the European Union.
The author dissects the geopolitical and global conditions of social and political pathology, which demand adequate conceptual and epistemological tools in order to cope with them.
The essays collected in the book deal, on the one side, with the phenomena of , contingency and fluidity, while, on the other, critically confronting with the neoliberal adoration of market forces, populism and unsustainable increase of , both at national and global level.
💬 Noam Chomsky wrote that Rudi Rizman addresses some of the most critical dilemmas of the present highly risked era.
Originally published in Slovenian 🇸🇮 in 2020, this thought-provoking work is now available in Croatian.

👨‍🎓Prof. emer. Rudi Rizman earned his PhD both from Ljubljana and Harvard University. He taught sociology of globalisation, classical theory, democratic theory and transitions, nationalism, contemporary social thought, human rights, war and peace issues, European and US politics, and other themes.
He led the Scientific-Research Institute at the Faculty of Arts, University of Ljubljana in 2002-2008, and lectured at many universities abroad - Harvard, MIT, London School of Economics and Political Science, Prague University, University of Washington in Seattle, and others. He was a member of the International Bertrand Russell Tribunal, of the Jean-Paul Sartre's Committee for granting alternative Nobel prizes and, as a public intellectual figure, he was involved in a number of critical political debates, both domestically and internationally.

A to understand the turbulent crossroads of our global age, towards shaping a better future ✨🌍


Anna Krasteva

20/10/2025

Last but not least, let's conclude the presentation of our , "'More-Than-Human-Sociality' in an Anthropogenic Earth: Balkan Perspectives", by presenting its final !

🧾 𝐓𝐢𝐭𝐥𝐞: Reconciliation by Stealth: How People Talk about War Crimes, 𝑤𝑟𝑖𝑡𝑡𝑒𝑛 𝑏𝑦 𝐷𝑒𝑛𝑖𝑠𝑎 𝐾𝑜𝑠𝑡𝑜𝑣𝑖𝑐𝑜𝑣𝑎 (2023)
✍ 𝐀𝐮𝐭𝐡𝐨𝐫: Daniela Lai
🔗 Discover more 𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐞: https://brill.com/view/journals/seeu/49/1-2/article-p227_013.xml

𝐀𝐛𝐨𝐮𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐚𝐮𝐭𝐡𝐨𝐫
Daniela Lai is senior lecturer in International Relations at Royal Holloway, University of London. Her research looks at questions of violence and justice in post-conflict contexts, with a particular focus on socioeconomic issues and political economy. Daniela’s book 𝑆𝑜𝑐𝑖𝑜𝑒𝑐𝑜𝑛𝑜𝑚𝑖𝑐 𝐽𝑢𝑠𝑡𝑖𝑐𝑒: 𝐼𝑛𝑡𝑒𝑟𝑛𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛𝑎𝑙 𝐼𝑛𝑡𝑒𝑟𝑣𝑒𝑛𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑇𝑟𝑎𝑛𝑠𝑖𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛 𝑖𝑛 𝑃𝑜𝑠𝑡-𝑊𝑎𝑟 𝐵𝑜𝑠𝑛𝑖𝑎 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝐻𝑒𝑟𝑧𝑒𝑔𝑜𝑣𝑖𝑛𝑎 was published by Cambridge University Press in 2020. Her work has also appeared in journals such as 𝑁𝑒𝑤 𝑃𝑜𝑙𝑖𝑡𝑖𝑐𝑎𝑙 𝐸𝑐𝑜𝑛𝑜𝑚𝑦, 𝑅𝑒𝑣𝑖𝑒𝑤 𝑜𝑓 𝐼𝑛𝑡𝑒𝑟𝑛𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛𝑎𝑙 𝑃𝑜𝑙𝑖𝑡𝑖𝑐𝑎𝑙 𝐸𝑐𝑜𝑛𝑜𝑚𝑦, 𝐸𝑡ℎ𝑛𝑜𝑝𝑜𝑙𝑖𝑡𝑖𝑐𝑠, 𝐼𝑛𝑡𝑒𝑟𝑛𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛𝑎𝑙 𝑅𝑒𝑙𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛𝑠 and the 𝐽𝑜𝑢𝑟𝑛𝑎𝑙 𝑜𝑓 𝐼𝑛𝑡𝑒𝑟𝑣𝑒𝑛𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑆𝑡𝑎𝑡𝑒𝑏𝑢𝑖𝑙𝑑𝑖𝑛𝑔.

🌐 Check out other insightful contributions on 's website: https://brill.com/view/journals/seeu/seeu-overview.xml


Anna Krasteva

17/10/2025

📖 New in Southeastern Europe!

In his latest book review, Neven Anđjelić examines "A Neglected Right: Prospects for the Protection of the Right to Be Elected in Bosnia and Herzegovina" (2022) by Senada Zatagić.

Zatagić’s work offers an insightful exploration of the legal, political, and constitutional dimensions surrounding the right to be elected in Bosnia and Herzegovina, a country still grappling with the legacy of post-war governance structures and equality before the law.

🔍 Read Anđjelić’s thoughtful analysis in Southeastern Europe: https://lnkd.in/d9EMXgb9

🖋️ About the reviewer:
Neven Anđjelić teaches International Relations and Human Rights at Regent’s University London. He is also a visiting professor at the University of Bologna. Dr. Anđjelić served on the Advisory Committee on the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities – Council of Europe. He was a visiting senior fellow at lse and was a Fulbright visiting scholar at the University of California at Berkeley. He is an activist for human rights issues in his country of origin, Bosnia-Herzegovina. Dr. Anđjelić had a career in journalism, working for cnn and bbc in the UK and all the leading media in Bosnia-Herzegovina. His latest book, "Covid-19, State-Power and Society in Europe: Focus on Western Balkans", was published in 2022 by Springer.

15/10/2025

📅 New day - new from our latest , "'More-Than-Human-Sociality' in an Anthropogenic Earth: Balkan Perspectives"!

🧾 𝗧𝗶𝘁𝗹𝗲: Imagining Slovene Socialist Modernity: The Urban Redesign of Ljubljana’s Beloved Trnovo Neighborhood, 1951–1989, 𝘸𝘳𝘪𝘵𝘵𝘦𝘯 𝘣𝘺 𝘝𝘦𝘳𝘰𝘯𝘪𝘤𝘢 𝘌. 𝘈𝘱𝘭𝘦𝘯𝘤 (2023)
✍ 𝗔𝘂𝘁𝗵𝗼𝗿: Antonio Grgić
🔗 Check it out 𝗵𝗲𝗿𝗲: https://brill.com/view/journals/seeu/49/1-2/article-p221_011.xml

𝗔𝗯𝗼𝘂𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗮𝘂𝘁𝗵𝗼𝗿
Antonio Grgić graduated from the Zagreb Faculty of Architecture and is currently a PhD candidate at the Institute of Architectural Theory, Art History and Cultural Studies in TU Graz. He is a member of the Croatian Philosophers Society, was a member of the supervisory board of The Croatian Association of Artists of Applied Arts and of the expert council of the Croatian Architects Association. He runs his architectural studio, Arhitekti kulture, in Zagreb.

❗ 𝗦𝗼𝘂𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗮𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗿𝗻 𝗘𝘂𝗿𝗼𝗽𝗲 (SEEU) is a peer-reviewed journal that aims to publish innovative research on contemporary developments in Southeastern Europe. SEEU embraces multi- and interdisciplinary scholarship and comparative approaches. The journal publishes thematic issues that contain essays, articles, interviews, debates, reviews, and news.

🌐 Follow us on and for cutting-edge research on the region!

Anna Krasteva

13/10/2025

The second from the
" 'More-Than-Human-Sociality' in an Anthropogenic Earth: Balkan Perspectives" (vol. 49/2025, iss. 1-2) brings us today to 🇧🇬

📖 Bulgaria, the Jews, and the Holocaust: On the Origins of a Heroic Narrative - by Nadège Ragaru (2023)
🖊 reviewed by Roumen Avramov
🔗https://shorturl.at/mMwTj

🧑‍🎓Roumen Avramov is an economist and historian, member of the Academic Advisory Council of the Centre for Advanced Study Sofia. Author of " 'Salvation' and Abjection. Microeconomics of the State Anti-Semitism in Bulgaria, 1940–1944" (Sofia University Press, 2012); co-editor (with Nadia Danova) of "The Deportation of the Jews from Vardar’s Macedonia, Western Thrace, and Pirot. March 1943. Documents from the Bulgarian Archives" (vol. 1-2, 2013) (both in Bulgarian).


Anna Krasteva

10/10/2025

🔎 New in Southeastern Europe!

📖 Between Separation and Symbiosis: South Eastern European Languages and Cultures in Contact
📚 Edited by Andrey N. Sobolev
🖋️ Reviewed by Ljiljana Šarić
🔗 [https://doi.org/10.30965/18763332-48030008]

The volume explores multilingualism and language contact across Albanian, Slavic, Greek, and Romance communities in the Balkans, highlighting how linguistic symbiosis and separation shape regional identities and interactions.

👩‍🏫 About the reviewer
Ljiljana Šarić is a professor of South Slavic linguistics at the University of Oslo. Her main research interests are semantics and the relation of language and thought, cognitive linguistics, and identity formation in discourse. Her publications include Metaphor, Nation and Discourse (coedited with M. M. Stanojević; Benjamins, 2019). Together with Federico Giulio Sicurella, she coedited the special issue of Southeastern Europe (vol. 46, 2022) titled European Crises or European Solidarity? The Western Balkans as a Testing Ground.

"Between Separation and Symbiosis: South Eastern European Languages and Cultures in Contact, edited by Andrey N. Sobolev" published on 08 Sep 2025 by Brill | Schöningh.

08/10/2025

💥 Let's present the second from our latest Special Issue, "'More-Than-Human-Sociality' in an Anthropogenic Earth: Balkan Perspectives"!

🧾 𝗧𝗶𝘁𝗹𝗲: How Do Hybrid Regimes Transition to Democracy? Lessons from Southeast Europe after 1990
✍ 𝗔𝘂𝘁𝗵𝗼𝗿𝘀: Dušan Pavlović, Ivan Stanojević, Nikola Jović, and Dušan Vučićević
🔗 Check it out 𝗵𝗲𝗿𝗲: https://brill.com/view/journals/seeu/49/1-2/article-p189_008.xml

𝗔𝗯𝘀𝘁𝗿𝗮𝗰𝘁
This article analyzes regime change in hybrid regimes, focusing on post-communist Southeast Europe, including the former Yugoslav republics and Albania after 1990. It examines the conditions under which these regimes evolve from hybrid forms (electoral authoritarianism) toward weak democracies. The authors identify competitive elections, opposition organization, and mass protest as key variables in this process. However, the authors argue that their effects are multiplicative rather than additive: regime change depends on the interaction among these factors, not their individual strength. The effectiveness of mass protest and opposition mobilization is mutually contingent and shaped by the degree of electoral openness. It is this interplay—between protest intensity, oppositional capacity, and electoral fairness—that critically shapes the prospects for democratic breakthroughs in the region.

𝗔𝗯𝗼𝘂𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗮𝘂𝘁𝗵𝗼𝗿𝘀
🧑‍🎓 Dušan Pavlović is a political economist teaching at the Faculty of Political Sciences in Belgrade. His areas of interest include political institutions, public administration, and state capture in post-communist Europe. He has published in several international journals. In 2022, he published a book titled 'Moneywasting Machine' with CEU Press.
🧑‍🎓 Ivan Stanojević is an assistant professor at the Faculty of Political Science, University of Belgrade, where he teaches courses in political economy and finance. His research focuses on the role of institutions, norms, and incentives in shaping decision-making and the provision of public goods, with a particular interest in applying rational choice and behavioral economics to public policy.
🧑‍🎓 Nikola Jovic Ph.D., born 1985, is a researcher and assistant professor at the Faculty of Political Science, University of Belgrade, Serbia. His work focuses on political behavior and the role of emotions in political decision-making, and he regularly publishes on these topics.
🧑‍🎓 Dušan Vučićević is an associate professor at the Faculty of Political Science, University of Belgrade, where he teaches about political institutions, constitutional design, elections and electoral systems. He has published in international journals, including 'Public Choice', 'Representation', 'Journal of Political Marketing', and 'New Perspectives'.

📚 Check out the other contributions from this Special Issue 𝗵𝗲𝗿𝗲: https://brill.com/view/journals/seeu/49/1-2/seeu.49.issue-1-2.xml

Anna Krasteva

07/10/2025

🌞 Today, we are featuring the first of our two General from SEEU's latest Special Issue, titled "'More-Than-Human-Sociality' in an Anthropogenic Earth: Balkan Perspectives".

📘 𝗧𝗶𝘁𝗹𝗲: Youth Insights. A Comparison of Social Cohesion and Life Evaluation in Rural and Urban Croatia
✍️ 𝗔𝘂𝘁𝗵𝗼𝗿: Bruno Šimac
🔗 You can read it 𝗵𝗲𝗿𝗲: https://brill.com/view/journals/seeu/49/1-2/article-p155_007.xml

𝗔𝗯𝘀𝘁𝗿𝗮𝗰𝘁
The importance of measuring youth’s subjective well-being has been increasingly recognized in contemporary social sciences with a focus on researching the crucial determinants that lead to living a satisfying life. In this article, the author compares life evaluations of young people living in two different types of settlements – rural and urban areas – in Croatia. Additionally, he investigates the relationship between the social cohesion and youth’s life evaluations. This research was conducted on the fes Youth Studies Southeast Europe 2018/2019 database on a sample of Croatian young people aged 18 to 29 with a total of 1218 participants. Contrary to previous research, no statistically significant difference in life evaluation was found between young rural and urban residents. Furthermore, regardless of their settlement type, Croatian youth with a higher trust in people, stronger identity, lower trust in institutions, and higher perception of social justice, show higher life evaluation.

𝗔𝗯𝗼𝘂𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗮𝘂𝘁𝗵𝗼𝗿
Bruno Šimac is a PhD and a research assistant at the Department of Sociology, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Zagreb. His research interests are focused on sociology of youth, rural sociology, urban sociology, sociological methodology, and environmental sociology.

🌐 Follow for the latest insights on the region!


Anna Krasteva

03/10/2025

🔎 Explore the latest from Southeastern Europe’s Special Issue, "'More-Than-Human-Sociality' in an Anthropogenic Earth: Balkan Perspectives"

📖 Title: Extreme Entanglements: Human and Non-Human Beings in Art at the Intersection of Science, Technology, and the Body
✍ Author: Sunčica Ostoić
🔗 Check it out here: https://brill.com/view/journals/seeu/49/1-2/article-p123_006.xml

𝗔𝗯𝘀𝘁𝗿𝗮𝗰𝘁
The article analyzes radical and extravagant visual art projects from Croatia, Slovenia, and Serbia created from the 2000s to the present. These works, situated at the intersection of art, science, technology, and the body, incorporate living non-human beings as integral components of artistic practice. Examined through biopolitical, antispeciesist, and posthumanist perspectives, the study links regional practices with global theoretical frameworks while addressing pressing contemporary issues. Featured examples include Zoran Todorović and Maja Smrekar’s works with canines, Siniša Labrović’s interactions with sheep, Betina Habjanič’s projects with pigs, Antonio Kutleša’s engagement with insects and plants, Špela Petrič’s collaborations with plants, and Saša Spačal’s explorations with mycelium and soil bacteria.

🖋️ About the author
Sunčica Ostoić is an art historian and theorist from Zagreb, Croatia, focusing on the intersections of visual arts with science, technology, and the body in the 20th and 21st centuries. She holds a PhD in Art and Media Sciences from the Faculty of Media and Communications in Belgrade. As co-founder and long-time director of KONTEJNER | bureau of contemporary art praxis, she has worked for twenty-five years as an independent curator, organizer of artistic events, and researcher. Since 2016, she has also been an external lecturer and expert collaborator at the Academy of Fine Arts, University of Zagreb.

01/10/2025

New day, new topic in the "More-than-Human Sociality" 💫🤓

📖 Q***r Necroecologies. Brutalization and Plant–Human Relationalities in Post-Yugoslav Literature 👨🌿
✒️ Andrija Filipović
👉 https://shorturl.at/bZkpH

Today's extremely original explores relations between and human trans ***r bodies in Vjeran Miladinović Merlinka’s 𝘛𝘦𝘳𝘦𝘻𝘪𝘯 𝘴𝘪𝘯 (2013), and Uroš Filipović’s 𝘚𝘵𝘢𝘬𝘭𝘦𝘯𝘢𝘤 (2002). Here appears as a technology for intensive shaping of trans q***r human and plant bodies into non-existence, an encounter happening in necroecological spaces on occasions marked by violence. In these works, the necroecologically produced plants take on two forms through brutalization: affective plant-bodies, caressed and cared for, or generic plant-ness, which are "mere" shrubs serving as protection in spaces where sexual encounters take place.

😎 Meet the author
Andrija Filipović is associate professor of Philosophy and Art & Media Theory at the Faculty of Media and Communications in Belgrade, Serbia. They are the author of (in 🇷🇸) 𝘈𝘳𝘴 𝘢𝘩𝘶𝘮𝘢𝘯𝘢: 𝘈𝘯𝘵𝘩𝘳𝘰𝘱𝘰𝘤𝘦𝘯𝘦 𝘰𝘯𝘵𝘰𝘨𝘳𝘢𝘱𝘩𝘪𝘦𝘴 𝘪𝘯 21𝘴𝘵 𝘤𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘶𝘳𝘺 𝘢𝘳𝘵 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘤𝘶𝘭𝘵𝘶𝘳𝘦 (2022), 𝘊𝘰𝘯𝘥𝘪𝘵𝘪𝘰 𝘢𝘩𝘶𝘮𝘢𝘯𝘢: 𝘐𝘮𝘮𝘢𝘯𝘦𝘯𝘤𝘦 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘢𝘩𝘶𝘮𝘢𝘯 𝘪𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘈𝘯𝘵𝘩𝘳𝘰𝘱𝘰𝘤𝘦𝘯𝘦 (2019), and monographs on Brian Massumi (2016) and Gilles Deleuze (2015). Their articles appeared in Sexualities, European Journal of Cultural Studies, Journal of Homosexuality, Contemporary Social Science, norma, and a number of edited volumes - such as 𝘗𝘭𝘢𝘴𝘵𝘪𝘤𝘴, 𝘌𝘯𝘷𝘪𝘳𝘰𝘯𝘮𝘦𝘯𝘵, 𝘊𝘶𝘭𝘵𝘶𝘳𝘦 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘗𝘰𝘭𝘪𝘵𝘪𝘤𝘴 𝘰𝘧 𝘞𝘢𝘴𝘵𝘦 (Edinburgh University Press, 2023), 𝘚𝘰𝘶𝘯𝘥 𝘈𝘧𝘧𝘦𝘤𝘵𝘴: 𝘈 𝘜𝘴𝘦𝘳’𝘴 𝘎𝘶𝘪𝘥𝘦 (Bloomsbury, 2023), and 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘙𝘰𝘶𝘵𝘭𝘦𝘥𝘨𝘦 𝘊𝘰𝘮𝘱𝘢𝘯𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘵𝘰 𝘎𝘦𝘯𝘥𝘦𝘳 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘈𝘧𝘧𝘦𝘤𝘵 (Routledge, 2022).
Their research interests include environmental humanities, q***r studies and philosophy.

🔎🌿 Read about these fascinating plant–human encounters, and much more, here: https://shorturl.at/OElri


Anna Krasteva