Patrick Michels, ed.. Balkanologie. Poigny-la-Foret, France: Homo Balkanicus, 1997. ISSN 1279-7952.

Reviewed by Steven Sowards

Published on HABSBURG (July, 1999)

Balkanologie is a recent addition to the schol‐ from American, French, British, and Balkan uni‐ arly journal literature of southeastern Europe, versities. published in France since 1997. While not limiting In each issue, readers will fnd between fve itself to historical subjects, the content includes and seven articles ranging in length from ffteen historical writing, and historians are prominent to twenty-fve pages, a small number of book re‐ among the names on the editorial board. Balka‐ views or review essays, and occasional special nologie has a substantial Web site at http:// features, such as an editorial on the Kosovo crisis www.chez.com/balkanologie/ where it describes or a report on recent Serbian legislation curbing itself as "a journal of Balkan studies in Human university freedoms in the wake of the student- and Social Sciences which covers the period from led anti-Milosevic activism of 1996-97. When op‐ the Middle Ages to today. Its orientation is portunity permits, two or three articles have been pluridisciplinary and its aim is to contribute to a grouped thematically under headings such as "Ef‐ better understanding of the contemporary Balkan fets de la transition postcommuniste." Most of the world." content is in French, with a few articles in Eng‐ The publishers also aspire to complement the lish, and abstracts appear in both of these lan‐ functions of a traditional print journal through guages. use of the Internet to promote wide exchange of While only four issues have appeared in print ideas and information among academics, policy to date, access to the journal is gradually increas‐ makers and students. In their view, such a "net‐ ing. For example, in March 1999, about half a work will improve mutual knowledge regarding dozen North American libraries were reporting the diferent research centres on the scientifc subscriptions via OCLC. The table of contents for works being done there. It will contribute to the each issue appears on the Balkanologie Web page, development and promotion of studies on Balkan and the full text of Vol. I, No. 2 recently has been Europe ... [and] to encourage the development of posted at http://www.chez.com/balkanologie/ Balkan studies, ... it will focus its attention particu‐ balkanologie2.htm, ofering potential subscribers larly on the work of young researchers." While an unusually convenient way to sample the maga‐ the board of editors and contributing authors in‐ zine and its contents. International Political Sci‐ clude established scholars, early issues of the ence Abstracts has begun indexing articles, begin‐ journal showcase work by doctoral students in ning with the frst issue. keeping with this stated purpose, as well as sub‐ The journal's orientation might be described missions by Balkan political insiders and scholars "engaged," refecting the milieu of its editorial H-Net Reviews seat at Universite de Paris-X at Nanterre. Nanterre verse methodologies and sources: public opinion is a workhorse institution located in a west Paris surveys uncovering mutual perceptions by suburb, serving 35,000 students in facilities in‐ French and Bulgarian citizens, ethnological feld‐ tended for half that number. Highly regarded as a work in a mixed Serbian-Croatian village in the center for the study of international law, among Vojvodina in the early 1990s, published economic other felds, this institution is no ivory tower: for‐ statistics tracking the economics of privatization mally established in 1971, Paris X Nanterre traces in Bulgaria, and newspaper and media analysis its spiritual and political roots to the student un‐ tracing friction in Albanian-Greek and Hungari‐ rest of May 1968, rather than the Middle Ages. an-Romanian relations (interested readers are re‐ The journal's director and secretary (Patrick minded that this issue appears in full text on the Michels and Yves Tomic, respectively) are associ‐ Web). ated with Nanterre; so are a quarter of the scien‐ Historians may fnd Volume II, No. 1 to be of tifc and editorial boards, the remainder being the greatest interest so far. Xavier Bougarel, a doc‐ scholars from British, Canadian, Greek, Croatian, toral student at the Institut d'Etudes Politiques and other French universities. Among the most (Paris) debunks urban-rural tensions and "re‐ prominent of these fgures are Alain Ducellier, venge from the countryside" as leading causes of professor of medieval and Byzantine history at Yugoslav civil strife, while fnding powerful con‐ the University of Toulouse-La Mirail, and Cather‐ temporary references to the myth and history of ine Durandin, university professor at the Institut hajduk and chetnik. Marina Glamocak, a re‐ National des Langues et Civilisations Orientales searcher at the Centre des Etudes et Mouvements (INALCO) in Paris and a historian of modern Ro‐ Sociaux, cites Serbian and Croatian publications mania. Others include Bernard Lory, also of INAL‐ from around the world to follow the origin and CO, and Herve Guillorel, from the politics depart‐ decline of emigre organizations since 1945. Benoit ment at Nanterre. Joudiou works with published medieval chroni‐ Balkanologie intends to cover Albania, cles to place ffteenth century Wallachian and Bosnia-Hercegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, , Moldavian culture in a Slavo-Byzantine context; Macedonia, Montenegro, , , and three other pieces analyze more recent develop‐ Turkey. Almost half of the articles that have ap‐ ments. The latest issue (Vol. II, No. 2) retains this peared so far deal with history or politics in re‐ balance between a historical and a contemporary gions of the former Yugoslavia, another quarter focus, with (among other oferings) a pair of arti‐ with Bulgarian topics, and the remainder with Ro‐ cles on events in Serbia, one dealing with 1877-78 mania (including Moldova), Albania, and Greece. and the other with 1994-95. Contemporary rather than historical matters have The publishers of Balkanologie have also em‐ received the greatest share of attention, with ff‐ braced the World Wide Web as a medium, and teen articles on events before, during, or after the their Web site at http://www.chez.com/balkanolo‐ revolutions of 1989, four more on the period of gie/ not only seeks to promote networking among Communism and the Cold War, and perhaps half scholars, but to serve as a "gateway" to the Balka‐ a dozen historically focused in periods prior to ns. From the journal's home page, Web surfers World War II. can reach a variety of other Web sites, including The frst issue of Balkanologie was broadly daily news from Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty thematic and dealt with issues of post-Commu‐ and a long list of Balkan media, digital maps, a nism and problems of transition after 1989. Vol‐ brief bibliography on Kosovo, remarks from the ume I, No. 2 presented fndings drawn from di‐ editors, conference news and announcements,

2 H-Net Reviews and servers for scholarly institutes, government agencies and non-governmental organizations lo‐ cated in Western Europe, America, and most of the Balkan states. Balkanologie is a lively new serial at a rea‐ sonable price: given current interest in the Balka‐ ns, and the ease with which interested parties can sample the journal's content on the Web, this ef‐ fort deserves a look, especially for those who might like to read more work with a non-Anglo- American perspective. Subscription information appears on the journal's Web site. Copyright (c) 1999 by H-Net, all rights re‐ served. This work may be copied for non-proft educational use if proper credit is given to the au‐ thor and the list. For other permission, please con‐ tact [email protected].

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Citation: Steven Sowards. Review of Michels, Patrick, ed. Balkanologie. HABSBURG, H-Net Reviews. July, 1999.

URL: https://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=3247

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