THE SHIFTING BORDERS OF EU EXPANSION: EVERYDAY EXPERIENCES OF REMOVING AND REPLACING BOUNDARIES ON THE ITALIAN-SLOVENIAN BORDER A thesis submitted to the University of Manchester for the degree of PhD in Social Anthropology in the Faculty of Humanities. 2012 VALENTINA MOISE SCHOOL OF SOCIAL SCIENCES TABLE of CONTENTS ABSTRACT 3 DECLARATION 5 COPYRIGHT 5 INTRODUCTION 6 CHAPTER 1: 13 PART I CHAPTER 2: 53 CHAPTER 3: 79 PART II CHAPTER 4: 105 CHAPTER 5: 150 CONCLUSION 189 BIBLIOGRAPHY 193 WORD COUNT (included footnotes): 71,118 2 ABSTRACT: University Of Manchester Valentina Moise PhD in Social Anthropology TITLE: “The shifting borders of EU expansion: everyday experiences of removing and replacing boundaries on the Italian-Slovenian border”. 2012 This thesis is an ethnography of the Italian-Slovenian border. The data presented in this thesis have been collected during one year of fieldwork (August 2008 - August 2009) that took place in the Province of Gorizia, the smallest of the region Friuli Venezia Giulia in the North-East of Italy. To be more specific, I conducted my fieldwork in the two areas of this Province that straddle the international border between Italy and Slovenia: the main town of Gorizia and the wine area of Collio that stretches North West of the town. I chose these areas because the town has been portrayed by some locals as a divided town as the Italian-Slovenian border straddles its peripheries and the peripheries of the Slovenian town of Nova Gorica, and the wine growers that live and/or work in the Collio area remove and replace the boundary according to their business. This thesis is about the making and marking of the Italian-Slovenian border now that both Italy and Slovenia are part of the European Union and, more importantly in this context, the Schengen Space. In fact, within the Schengen area the physical structures of the border have been erased; because of this erasure locals discussed the border as having ‘disappeared’, hence putting emphasis on the border structure as an object of demarcation. This thesis is an ethnographic example of how such a combined erasure (of borders within the EU) and simultaneous maintenance of state borders is being experienced on an everyday basis. This research aims to be an example of how Gorizia and the Collio area are shaped by the local residents’ narratives and perceptions of the political processes of bordering and de- bordering: an example of border theory from the local perspective. This work wants to be an example of border as a quality -as ongoing activity-, rather than as a fixed object. As such this thesis is looking at borderworks: the multiple qualities of borders, and how those qualities constantly change. 3 DECLARATION I declare that no portion of the work referred to in this thesis has been submitted in support of an application for another degree or qualification of this or any other university or other institute of learning. 4 COPYRIGHT STATEMENT: The author of this thesis (including any appendices and/or schedules to this thesis) owns certain copyright or related rights in it (the “Copyright”) and she has given The University of Manchester certain rights to use such Copyright, including for administrative purposes. Copies of this thesis, either in full or in extracts and whether in hard or electronic copy, may be made only in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 (as amended) and regulations issues under it or, where appropriate, in accordance with licensing agreements which the University has from time to time. This page must form part of any such copies made. The ownership of certain Copyright, patents, designs, trade marks and other intellectual property (the “Intellectual Property”) and any reproductions of copyright works in the thesis, for example graphs and tables (“Reproductions”), which may be described in this thesis, may not be owned by the author and may not be owned by third parties. Such Intellectual Property and Reproductions cannot and must not be made available for use without the prior written permission of the owner of the relevant Intellectual Property and/or Reproductions. Further information on the conditions under which disclosure, publication and commercialisation of this thesis, the Copyright and the Intellectual Property and/or Reproductions described in it may take place is available in the University IP Policy (see http://www.campus.manchester.ac.uk/medialibrary/policies/intellectual-property.pdf), in any relevant Thesis restriction declarations deposited in the University Library, The University Library’s regulations (see http://www.manchester.ac.uk/library/aboutus/regulations) and in The University’s policy on presentation of Theses. 5 INTRODUCTION I always wanted to write about Gorizia, its district, and more specifically its border: my experiences growing up there were my inspiration. I am from Gorizia and for at least my lifetime (29 years), this border has been considerably open especially when compared to other borders. There has always been dialogue with the Slovenian side of the border, as far as I can remember, however this dialogue was always invested with notions of the past: when it appeared, how, what it divided, or if it did divide at all. The local literature confirmed that there was something to write about: several are in fact the local works that report the history of this area (e.g. De Vitis Piemonti & Spangher, 1987; Kusterle & Pillon, 2005), and Italian-Slovenian relationships through the centuries, from a political point of view (Cattaruzza, 2007; Sartori, 2004; Wörsdörfer, 2009), but also from a local perspective (Marušič, 2005; Marušič & Tavano, 2007; Stasi, 2009). Diverse were the definitions from more negative to more positive connotations, just to cite a few: conflicted area, last wall of Europe (Wikipedia, ‘Muro di Gorizia’), meeting point, intersection of cultures, cross road of Europe. Ethnographies, like Ballinger’s History in Exile (2003), were the reassurance that there was something there to write about that might be interesting to somebody outside the local area and Italy. I was especially emotionally taken when I first noticed that Ballinger briefly describes Gorizia in her second chapter, “Geographies of Violence” (2003:56), and she compares it to her field place of Trieste explaining how it was also contested at the end of the Second World War. Her work, so strongly present in this thesis as an inspiration and guide, was what brought me to write the proposal for my research. 6 - THE PROJECT EXPLAINED In order to distinguish myself from the existing literature on borders and the European Union, I had decided to research the aspect of the entrance of Slovenia in the European Union and how border was understood, expressed and narrated by residents of an EU border area, since at the time (2007) I could not find reference to other works on an internal border of the EU. To be precise, what sparked this project was trying to understand why the local residents of the Gorizia district kept referring to the moment of Slovenia’s entrance to the EU as ‘now that there is no border’ [tr. adesso che il confine]non c’è più]. What emerged from this sentence was a strict association of the word “border” with what was represented by the border structures: the state line, still very much there, was not considered. The physical border had thus become the centre of this study to see if the freedom of movement of people and goods was the most important aspect of life on this border. My own local knowledge and some pre- fieldwork research led me to think that some further research in the history of the area would have been beneficial since the border had only been present in the area for sixty years (1947- 2007) and its social significance was directly influenced by the historical events of these last years: the Second World War, the distinction between Capitalist and Socialist worlds, the break-up of Yugoslavia in 1991, and the European Union. In fact, as far as I knew when I was writing a proposal, there might have been talk of ‘no border’, but there was a clear distinction between Italians and Slovenians. When I left for fieldwork the plan was to conduct cross-countries fieldwork working with the Italian and Slovenian wine producers of the region of Collio/Brda which stretches right across the border, because most of them owned family businesses that pre-dated World War II, experienced the border from its ‘appearance’ to its ‘disappearance’, were affected by the border related events listed above. As a social group, the wine growers presented themselves as an ideal point of reference to explore historical and day to day relationship between 7 Italians and Slovenians and the place was perfect to pop quickly from one side of the border to the other to conduct immediate cross country research. However, the focus of this thesis has expanded and shifted since then: once in the field, as always happens, there was a different turn of events, and my research has developed in a slightly different way to the project as originally envisaged. It now compares and contrasts how a different setting and livelihood make the same border appear as two different borders: specifically the town landscape and people living in the town, and country landscape and the wine grower that work there. Of one year on fieldwork (beginning of August 2008 – end of July 2009), only half the time was spent among the wine growers of the area of Collio, which is part of the district of Gorizia. I did in fact spend the other half my time in the town of Gorizia, working in a doctor's clinic, attending local events and speaking with people living and working in the town.