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Political Manoeuvring and Protest in Pristina's Public Spaces

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Political Manoeuvring and Protest in Pristina's Public Spaces Durham E-Theses From the Café We Went to War: Political Manoeuvring and Protest in Pristina's Public Spaces DIMING, CHRISTOPHER,JOHN How to cite: DIMING, CHRISTOPHER,JOHN (2016) From the Café We Went to War: Political Manoeuvring and Protest in Pristina's Public Spaces, Durham theses, Durham University. Available at Durham E-Theses Online: http://etheses.dur.ac.uk/12251/ Use policy The full-text may be used and/or reproduced, and given to third parties in any format or medium, without prior permission or charge, for personal research or study, educational, or not-for-prot purposes provided that: • a full bibliographic reference is made to the original source • a link is made to the metadata record in Durham E-Theses • the full-text is not changed in any way The full-text must not be sold in any format or medium without the formal permission of the copyright holders. Please consult the full Durham E-Theses policy for further details. Academic Support Oce, Durham University, University Oce, Old Elvet, Durham DH1 3HP e-mail: [email protected] Tel: +44 0191 334 6107 http://etheses.dur.ac.uk 2 1 Abstract “From the Café We Went to War”: Political Manoeuvring and Protest in Pristina's Public Spaces Christopher John Diming I discuss how agents utilise rhetoric to alter their ties with other agents within social spaces from field research conducted in Pristina, the capital of Kosovo, from June 2014 to July 2015. First, I flesh out the theoretical and methodological framework for the rest of the dissertation. The theoretical framework is based on a view of hegemony influenced by Green and Laclau, where hegemony is a process through which agents draw on rhetoric to alter their relationships. I appropriate a methodology combining ethnography with systematic Social Network Analysis (SNA) and cultural domain analysis in order to provide a complementary account of networks, agents and spaces in Pristina. Second, I review the anthropological work on rhetoric, considering rhetoric as a tool used by agents to alter their social relations which draws on discourses. Third, I explore how agents in Pristina conceptualise space through interpreting perspectives from ethnographic interviews and data from a pile sort exercise, showing that spaces shape how agents act through being discursive settings. Fourth, I delve into the concepts of nder (“honour”) and turp (“shame”) through interviews and the analysis of a free list, showing how the concepts play out in Pristina and their links with each other, including related concepts. Fifth, I explore, through a SNA, how agents organise networks of relationships and illustrate how agents make use of rhetoric drawing on cultural concepts such as nder and besa in the course of their activities. Sixth, I explore how people in Pristina conceptualise their identities and show that Albanian national identity has been constructed as a discursive formation linking agents together. I conclude that agents utilise rhetoric to alter their ties with other agents in social spaces by drawing on discourses, thereby shaping discourses, changing the agents' networks and resulting in the emergence of new circumstances. 2 “From the Café We Went to War”: Political Manoeuvring and Protest in Pristina's Public Spaces Christopher John Diming Submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Anthropology Department of Anthropology, Durham University Supervised by Dr Stephen M. Lyon and Prof Robert H. Layton 2016 3 Table of Contents Table of Contents ...................................................................................................................................... 3 Table of Figures ........................................................................................................................................ 6 Statement of Copyright ............................................................................................................................. 7 Acknowledgements ................................................................................................................................... 8 Abbreviations .......................................................................................................................................... 11 Chapter 1: Introduction ........................................................................................................................... 12 The Field Site: Pristina ........................................................................................................................ 14 Theoretical Framework: Ambiguity, Marginality and Hegemony in the “Balkans” .......................... 32 Introduction to the Methodology ........................................................................................................ 48 Agents, Networks and Systems: Using Social Network Analysis ...................................................... 49 Situating the Anthropologist ............................................................................................................... 53 Interviews for “Finding Culture” ........................................................................................................ 57 Exploring Terms with Free Lists ........................................................................................................ 62 Pile Sorts and Relationships between Terms ...................................................................................... 63 Finding Agency: Utilising Unstructured Interviews ........................................................................... 66 Turning Social Phenomena Inside Out with “Good-Enough Methods” ............................................. 67 Chapter 2: Theory on Rhetoric and Culture ............................................................................................ 72 Introduction ......................................................................................................................................... 72 Burke and Rhetoric ............................................................................................................................. 73 Fernandez and the Play of Tropes ....................................................................................................... 74 “Rhetoric Culture Theory” .................................................................................................................. 76 Social Poetics ...................................................................................................................................... 79 Rhetoric and Hegemony...................................................................................................................... 80 Synthesis ............................................................................................................................................. 83 Conclusion .......................................................................................................................................... 87 Chapter 3: Cultural Concepts amidst Networks and Public Spaces in Hegemony ................................. 89 Introduction ......................................................................................................................................... 89 Concepts in Social Network Analysis (SNA) ..................................................................................... 91 The Public Sphere, Public Space and Hegemony ............................................................................... 99 Descriptions of Honour ..................................................................................................................... 110 Bourdieu and Honour ........................................................................................................................ 111 Honour after Structural-Functionalism and Structuralism ................................................................ 112 Symbolic Capital and Honour ........................................................................................................... 115 4 Shame and the Regulation of Agents through Networks .................................................................. 116 Conclusion ........................................................................................................................................ 124 Chapter 4: The Public Sphere and Public Space in Pristina ................................................................. 126 Introduction ....................................................................................................................................... 126 Practices and Concepts of Space in Pristina ..................................................................................... 126 Boundaries Between Public and Private: Fixed or Blurred?............................................................. 133 Pile Sorts ........................................................................................................................................... 146 Discussion and Conclusion ............................................................................................................... 157 Conclusion ........................................................................................................................................ 161 Chapter 5: Negotiating Honour and Shame in Pristina ......................................................................... 163 Introduction ......................................................................................................................................
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