BALKANISTIC WORLDS

Category: 2026-2-1

  • Kamelia Petkova
    Institute of Philosophy and Sociology, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences
    [kamelia.petkova@gmail.com]
    ORCID ID: 0000-0002-3108-3887    		Download
    https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.18078031

    VOICES FROM THE GHETTO: STORIES OF LONELINESS, STIGMA, AND BELONGING IN SIX BULGARIAN CITIES

    Abstract: This paper examines experiences of loneliness, stigma, and belonging among residents of Roma ghettoized neighborhoods in six Bulgarian cities – Lom, Dobrich, Ruse, Asenovgrad, Kyustendil, and Straldzha. The analysis is based on qualitative research methods: 36 in-depth interviews (six in each city) conducted with different members of the Roma community – men and women of various age groups, informal Roma leaders, educational and health mediators. This approach provides in-depth insights into the social realities of ghettoized neighborhoods, moving beyond superficial public perceptions. The study traces how spatial isolation and institutional stigma shape the sense of the “ghetto” – simultaneously as a place of social exclusion and of collective identity. At the center of the analysis are personal narratives of silence and fear, but also of faith and hope. Theoretically, the article builds on the concepts of social stigma, moral boundaries, and territorial marginalization. Its aim is to demonstrate how “voices from below” articulate their lived experiences and to give visibility to a frequently neglected social world.

    Keywords: Roma; stigma; marginalization; belonging; ghetto; Bulgaria.

    • Declaration by Authors
    • Ethical Approval: Approved
    • Conflict of Interest: The authors declare no conflict of interest.

  • Tamila Davitadze
    Batumi Shota Rustaveli State University, Batumi, Georgia
    [tamila.davitadze@bsu.edu.ge]
    ORCID ID: 0000-0003-3486-1696
    Nana Mazmishvili
    Batumi Shota Rustaveli State University, Batumi, Georgia
    [nana.mazmishvili@bsu.edu.ge]
    ORCID ID: 0009-0000-3233-2702    		Download
    https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.18078007

    PSYCHOLOGICAL PORTRAIT OF DYSTOPIAN SOCIETY IN A TOTALITARIAN ENVIRONMENT

    Abstract: Dystopian novels represent a hyperbole of evil and violence through the psychological portrait of humanity. Authors, while developing the principle of the supremacy of free choice, literarily mask their message and, through the example of protagonist heroes, demonstrate various methods and means intended to suppress protest. They expose the state where violent means are used to attempt to “correct” people. Often, through antagonists, they also show the relationship and confrontation between the individual and the state. In such cases, a significant place is occupied by the artistic image of the leader, who is one of the leading figures in dystopian novels, such as Mustapha Mond in Huxley’s “Brave New World,” O’Brien in Orwell’s “1984,” Colonel Beatty in Bradbury’s novel “Fahrenheit 451,” and others. In dystopian genre books, authors frequently extrapolate existing problems into the future. This technique enables them to critique various aspects of contemporary society, whether it be totalitarian regimes, control over the individual, ecological catastrophes, or the degradation of social norms. Dystopian fiction compels readers to contemplate the possible consequences of our current actions and choices; to develop critical thinking, social responsibility, and the importance of fighting for a better future. In today’s chaotic world, where numerous states control their citizens through censorship, propaganda, intimidation, or indoctrination, dystopian literature and the study of such issues as dystopian politics, totalitarian government, and anti-intellectualism gain even greater significance and relevance, which we illuminate and highlight in comparative perspective through specific works, emphasizing the innovation that individual authors contributed to the development of the dystopian novel through their creativity.

    Keywords: Dystopian novel; totalitarian government; antagonists; protagonist; state.

    • Declaration by Authors
    • Ethical Approval: Approved
    • Conflict of Interest: The authors declare no conflict of interest.

  • Marija Martinović
    Philosophy and Slavic Studies at Sorbonne University (Paris)
    CEFRES, UMIFRE 13, UAR 3138 CNRS-MEAE
    [marija.sorbonne@yahoo.com],
    ORCID ID: 0009-0007-0389-7617    		Download
    https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.18077962

    PHILOSOPHICAL REFLECTIONS ON THE SOCIAL BOND IN TITO’S YUGOSLAVIA: ŽIŽEK’S CRITIQUE OF IDEOLOGICAL UNITY AND THE PRINCIPLE OF AGAPÈ

    Abstract: This article written as a philosophical dissertation examines the concept of social bond as a central question of collective existence, using Tito’s socialism as its historical and ideological framework. It analyzes how Yugoslav socialism sought to produce unity through the political ideal of “Brotherhood and Unity,” aiming to establish an inclusive social bond as the foundation of its social order. However, as Slavoj Žižek demonstrates, this ideology of fraternity used a mechanism of exclusion and assimilation that erased singularity and transformed the idea of inclusion into conformity. The study explores Žižek’s philosophical critique of this socialist model of cohesion and his redefinition of the authentic social bond through the concept of agapè, a universal and unconditional love that respects differences rather than suppressing them. Through Žižek’s reading of Christian love and its political implications, the article offers the only possible foundation for a genuine social bond, one that unites individuals without abolishing their singularity. By contrasting the ideological illusion of unity in Tito’s socialism with the inclusive universality of agapè, this study seeks to clarify the philosophical necessity of an ethics of love as the true principle of political and human community.

    Keywords: social bond; socialist Yugoslavia; Slavoj Žižek; agape; inclusion.

    • Declaration by Authors
    • Ethical Approval: Approved
    • Conflict of Interest: The authors declare no conflict of interest.

  • George Gotsiridze
    Iakob Gogebashvili Telavi State University (Georgia)
    Teaching-Research Institute for Interdisciplinary Humanities (Georgia)
    [giagotsiridze67@gmail.com],
    ORCID ID: 0000-0001-8151-2232    		Download
    https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.18077931

    PAPERS OF THE STRUGGLE FOR THE STRENGTHENING THE NATIONAL IDENTITY. IN THE ARCHIVES OF GEORGIAN PUBLIC FIGURES

    Abstract: The article examines the struggle for the consolidation of national identity reflected in the archives of outstanding Georgian public figures of the 19th-20th centuries. The unfiltered and authentic narratives documented in personal letters and other archival material provide a clear picture of the challenges faced by a nation caught in the grips of an imperial regime and the daily efforts Georgian figures made to overcome these difficulties.

    The documentary material presents the efforts of scientists-historians, writers, and many Georgian representatives of the Russian military-bureaucratic elite to resolve various issues related to the preservation of national identity, namely: to restore the autocephaly of the Georgian Orthodox Church, To increase the rights of the Georgian language in the educational system, to publish Georgian books, to preserve the items of the national spiritual and material culture, to increase the awareness of Georgia abroad, etc.

    The emigrant archives, which were handed over to Georgia after the collapse of the Soviet Union, provide information about how Georgian emigrants abroad, escaping the Soviet regime, tried to establish a patriotic narrative different from the imperial one prevailing at that time. This cultural diplomacy, while still part of the empire, created the conditions for the rejection of the self-absorbed imperial heritage and the rise of nationalism based on a healthy, authentic heritage.The issue is studied based on the personal letters of Platon Yoseliani, Dimitri Bakradze, Zakaria Chichinadze, Theodore Jordania, Grigol Orbeliani, and the materials of the emigrant archive.

    Keywords: National Identity; Georgian Public Figures; Emigrant Archives; Imperial Regime; Authentic Heritage.

    • Declaration by Authors
    • Ethical Approval: Approved
    • Conflict of Interest: The authors declare no conflict of interest.

  • Claudia-Florentina Dobre
    “Nicolae Iorga” Institute of History, Bucharest (Romania)
    [cfdobre@gmail.com],
    ORCID ID: 0000-0001-6778-3466    		Download
    https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.18077879

    HEGEMONIC OR MARGINAL PERSPECTIVE!? THE MANY SHADES OF NOSTALGIA IN POST-COMMUNIST ROMANIA

    Abstract: In Romania, communism was declared, on December 18, 2006, an ‘illegitimate and criminal regime’. From this moment on, the main paradigm of remembering communism in the public space was anticommunism. However, ordinary people seem to remember communism in a more positive tune as shown by the various polls which measure a constantly increasing appreciation for the fallen regime. The explanations for this nostalgia are various: from ‘longing for a lost past’ to a form of counter-memory, as a critique of the present, and a fear for the future. Another explanation is the commodification of communism which became another marchandise to be consummed. A more subtle form of nostalgia was fuelled by the Romanian intelligentia in the 2000s, which can be explained by a change of generation, which did not feel represented either by the anticommunist discourse or the regret for a fallen regime measured by the polls. My article deals with the various forms of nostalgia recorded in Romania in the last 36 years since the fall of communism aiming at describing them, offering some explanations while trying to understand the trends and mechanisms of both ‘reflective’ and ‘restorative’ forms of nostalgia.

    Keywords: Anticommunism; Dominant Narratives; Intergenerational Memory; Pink Nostalgia.

    • Declaration by Authors
    • Ethical Approval: Approved
    • Conflict of Interest: The authors declare no conflict of interest.

  • Vlad Mitric-Ciupe
    Center for Historical and Architectural Studies, Bucharest (Romania)
    [vlad.mitric@adproiect.ro],
    ORCID ID: 0000-0003-4011-9041    		Download
    https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.18127673

    PROCEDURALIZING EVIL, PROCEDURALIZING DIGNITY: MEMORY, TRAUMA, AND POST-CONFLICT ETHICS IN A SHARED BIOGRAPHY

    Abstract: This article analyzes how large-scale violence in Central and Eastern Europe becomes administratively thinkable – and how dignity is later re-instituted – through a shared biography that fuses two extreme trajectories in postwar Romania: a Holocaust survivor (Nazi camps) and a former political prisoner subjected to the Pitești Reeducation and forced labor. Rather than juxtaposing sealed histories, the study traces the proceduralization of evil (lists, approvals, selection, transport) and the proceduralization of dignity (measured utterance, micro-solidarities, routines of care). Methodologically, it advances a triangulation of archives, memoir, and oral history, paired with an ethics of measure (tempered voice, economy of qualifiers, disciplined detail). Conceptually, it foregrounds relations between victims and persecutors beyond rigid binaries by mobilizing the gray zone of distributed responsibility and the banality of procedure. The analysis shows how written testimony (a deliberately “low voice”) carries memory from the communicative to the cultural register, while post-1989 silence – read through moral injury – relocates testimony into lived practice (care, work, continuity). Addressing reconciliation and transitional justice, the article argues for “slow infrastructures”: archival openness with clear finding aids, editorial standards that keep document and evocation apart, curricula that teach operations alongside narratives, and ethically curated memorial sites (including former communist prisons). On the question Is forgiveness possible? the article follows Minow and Teitel: forgiveness is a personal ethical option, not a public policy tool; recognition, truth, and accountability are prerequisites, and no substitute for justice.

    Keywords: Balkans; Central and Eastern Europe; Holocaust; communist repression; Pitești reeducation; cultural memory; ethics of measure; gray zone; reconciliation; transitional justice.

    • Declaration by Authors
    • Ethical Approval: Approved
    • Conflict of Interest: The authors declare no conflict of interest.

  • Michaela Wolf
    University of Graz, Austria
    [michaela.wolf@uni-graz.at]    		Download
    https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.18077806

    LEBENSSPUREN – TRACES OF LIFE

    Abstract: The article that follows is Michaela Wolf’s introduction to the volume Visions of Historical Anthropology in Southeastern Europe. Karl Kaser – Continuing the Discussion,[1] a collection she edited as a way of carrying forward Karl Kaser’s scholarly vision and research approaches. Our sincere thanks go to LIT Verlag for kindly allowing us to reprint and translate this text.

    Keywords: Karl Kaser; Historical Anthropology; Black Sea region.

    [1] Wolf, Michaela (2024) „Lebensspuren“, in: Wolf, Michaela (ed.) Visionen Historischer Anthropologie im südöstlichen Europa. Karl Kaser – Die Diskussion weiterführen. Wien: LIT Verlag, 1–9.

    • Declaration by Authors
    • Ethical Approval: Approved
    • Conflict of Interest: The authors declare no conflict of interest.