Renegotiating Albanian Identity: European Transformations
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
Renegotiating Albanian Identity: European Transformations Marina Lazëri Utrecht University The Netherlands Introduction The focal point of this paper is to consider the emerging European identity of Albania and its reflection in the public domain. The purpose for this exploration is twofold: on the one hand, this paper intends to explore the ways in which Albanian identity is being redefined and redrawn, and on the other hand, it intends to point out to the fragility of such a concept as a common European Identity, which is frequently employed by mainstream EU public discourse today. (E.g. Bruter, 2005; Neumann, 1999). In order to achieve this, I separate this paper in a few relevant theoretical and methodological subdivisions. Firstly, I shall talk about the theoretical understandings of periphery and center through both a normative power perspective and a Wallersteinian approach to the center and the periphery. I will thus study Albania in its positioning as a peripheral country with regards to the center, namely the EU, and explore how identities of peripheries are formed through their own perceptions alongside normative influences from the center. Secondly, I shall treat a case of Albania’s shifting identity with regards to the European Union and its consequences, as an illustration of operating mechanisms which serve as pull and push factors of identity orientation The history of the Balkans is a complex narrative of ethnic clashes, and the countries therein have been associated with radically different centers throughout history. The Balkans have, geographically, politically, culturally and economically, been the periphery of many great empires with centers to the West, North or East. This leads to today’s mosaic of approaches to European integration or identity formation in general. This is relevant for another aspect of this research: tapping into a sense of historical Otherness prevalent in Albania, a move which serves to explore identity formation from a point of view of inside/outside narratives. My claim is that Albania has historically been an outsider in the Balkans itself and furthermore that today it seeks historical grounds to legitimize its claims of sharing an identity with what it perceives to be the successful model of civilization. However, identity construction does not stop at that but is, in Albania’s case, a response to outside 1 influences and to the perpetual role of historical other that it has held for any center around which it has gravitated, as well as any group part of which it could have been on equal terms. This leads to a (re)evaluation of the role of agency in national identity formation. The main goal of this paper, however, is not to impress upon the normative power of the European Union: that is merely one of the mechanisms that influences identity construction. What interests me more is how certain symbols are taken up and redefined to suit different purposes at different times. What is then most fascinating concerns using this study as an exploration of the process that is identity: looking at how identity is defined as final and finite in a certain time by using a certain narrative. Furthermore, considering how this narrative can be taken up and with a few changes, serve another purpose gives us great insight into state‐making. The interaction of these shifting identity narratives with the peripheral or central position of a country results in very interesting consequences for the country’s applications of sovereignty. I use the example of Scanderbeg, the Albanian National Hero, in order to illustrate the politically‐driven purposes by which the narrative can be used, and what consequences this has for the way in which we understand the country. Chapter 1: Constructing the Center and the Periphery As a starting point in this analysis, an exploration of what constitutes the center in discursive terms is necessary. In this case, therefore, it is important to understand the center and the periphery as relational to one another, regardless of any meaningful existence of objective and material advantages of the center. Subsequently, the point is to consider the relational positioning of the periphery and the center which are focused on the creation of social meaning: it is the latter that ultimately has consequences for identity‐formation. In order to understand this approach, I will consider the concept of the normative power of the European Union and the consequences that it has for Albanian identity. Normative Power of the European Union Speaking of the center must be done simultaneously with speaking of the periphery – the two are inexorably related. In fact, in order to recognize itself as a center, the latter needs to see itself as a normative power, which is often argued to be the approach used by the European Union today. (Diez 2005: 614) Thus its identity and display as a center spring, in part, from possessing the means to propagate particular norms. It is irrelevant whether the identity of Europe is based on objective truth or constructed narratives, as it has already achieved possession of the means to establish itself as the center (and centers are largely 2 understood as being unified in meaning). Furthermore, key in investigating the position of the European Union or any center as such, is the legitimacy that springs from the periphery. One of the most important elements by which a center can achieve the status of a center emerges as a result of the rhetoric used by the periphery which identifies itself as such, but simultaneously rejects its own existence as such by striving to achieve the identification status of the center. The periphery’s desire to be associated with an allegedly more successful civilization gives more power and legitimacy to this civilization, the center. Thus the European Union comes across as a hegemonic authority: in addition to having the means to spread its values and norms, it also possesses the power of stirring peripheral actors to undertake actions which they might have otherwise not considered. The mere process of EU integration is an excellent illustration of this: for granting EU candidate status, an aspiring country should fulfill a number of political, economic and social conditions in terms of reforms. What precisely is not of consequence for this paper, but it is important to note that this gives the EU an excellent possibility to push an agenda that is not simply economic or political. However, over time, this agenda is not necessarily very explicit and one‐sided anymore. On this note, it is interesting to observe how often peripheries will strive to adopt norms and values of the centers, often without any direct or even indirect nudging from the latter. In order to better explain this, some reference must be made to aspirations for EU membership (Diez 2005: 616). In this context, the EU gains larger normative power as it is able to influence more directly and with more legitimacy countries that aim membership. In the case of South‐Eastern Europe, this is very relevant to identity construction as it determines the EU as the center in possession of the power to determine how these countries stand in relation to its overarching standards and furthermore, it gets the legitimacy to determine the standards that the ones who seek progress and civilization need to adhere to. Normative power suggests a lack of agency in defining the identity of the periphery. The periphery is constructed around its existence as a receiving end of the center which is powerful enough to determine how the former should approach democratization and economic transition, or that the latter should be implemented anyways. In Albania, the European Union is seen very strongly as a normative power: it is perceived from a neoliberalist point of view in that it possesses the ultimate successful model of civilization. In fact, an argument is often made in Albanian public circles that political parties and the political scene in Albania has been defined in such a neo‐liberalist way that it has substituted 3 any real left or right wing alternatives. 1 Most recently, the points put forth in this section are exemplified in a speech by Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama in the Hague Institute for Global Justice, in which the PM explicitly identified European values as Albania’s true orientation, while presenting this orientation as a process and a struggle to escape from other (consequently non‐true) orientations.2 World‐system analysis A further insight can be provided into this issue by utilizing Wallerstein’s world‐ system analysis. The role of the periphery as related to the center (core, in Wallerstein’s language) does not necessarily define both of them as such but most certainly adds to the meaning. World‐system analysis is insightful in a further understanding of these relations by providing another analytical approach, that which is achieved through the definition of semi‐ periphery. (Wallerstein 2004) 3 The semi‐periphery does not exhibit to a full extent neither the attributes of the core (center in our case), nor of the periphery. These attributes can vary from economic to political, to cultural, to social, but that is beside the point. What comes across as relevant to mention is how the semi‐periphery positions itself in relation to the center and the periphery. Thus, the semi‐periphery seeks to reject the identity of the periphery in order to adopt the identity of the center and eventually become the center. In order to define the semi‐periphery in these terms, we do not even need to look into these countries economic and political development. Instead, the semi‐periphery exhibits patterns of behaviour that define it as such when it seeks to reject the periphery component.