Unravelling border constructions between the EU and the Western Balkans : Impact of borders on Serbia’s Europeanization
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2012
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en
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Abstract
Although the European Union (EU) expanded on large-scale over the last twenty years, the
Western Balkans are not part the EU (yet). The perception most of the people from
Western-Europe have from the Balkans resembles mainly as negative images. On one hand
these perceptions are a matter of ignorance, but on the other side these images are based
on borders, constructed over the years. Unravelling these particular border constructions
between the EU and the Western Balkans is what this thesis is all about. This thesis contains
a literature review on the concepts of borders, the process of Europeanization and
discourses on the existing borders between the EU and the Western Balkans. An empirical
part is included, where the interview results show the importance and impact of the
imaginary borders in present day Europe. This imaginary border is connected with culture,
values and the position a single person is in. While physical borders within the EU rapidly are
being removed, the imaginary border, which is part of the mental map, does not vanish with
it. This process may take several generations to overcome. As the process of
Europeanization is ongoing in the Western Balkans, each of the Western Balkan countries
has its own luggage to carry and therefore their own path towards a possible EUmembership.
Today’s Western Balkans does not match with present-day Europe (i.e. the
EU), but with the past. In the meanwhile the borders (both imaginary and physical) do
influence the process of Europeanization. The way towards EU-accession does not remove
the borders, but it may reduce the borders. If is to believe that borders are being reduced,
this is not done in a single swipe. For the Balkans there is obviously a need for change to
cure them by turning into a normalized region and to get rid of the growing nationalism and
nationalistic myths. Even though, most of the respondents stressed that even when the
Western Balkans become part of the EU, the imaginary borders will remain and the
(Western) Balkans will last to be a less favoured, mysterious EU-region.
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Faculteit der Managementwetenschappen