ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL HISTORY OF THE BALKANS

PSIR626

Course Code: PSIR626
Semester: -
Theory+Practice: 3 + 0
ECTS: 10

Course Type

Elective Course

Course Level

Doctorate Of Science

Year of Study

Semester

ECTS

Name of Lecturer(s)

Assistant Professor Erdem Damar

Learning Outcomes

At the end of this course, the students;

Acquire extensive knowledge about the political, economic, social and historical speci-ficities of the Balkan region,
Develop critical perspectives to evaluate and assess economic and societal questions that partly constitute foreign policies especially of the Western Balkan countries,
Analyze the complex modes of relationships between Balkan countries and the European Union,
Develop skills to discuss, assess, and evaluate socio-economic and political relationships among Balkan countries as well as between Balkan countries and other regional and global actors.

Mode of Delivery

Face to face

Prerequisites

Recommended Optional Programme Components

None

Course Description

This course focuses on the relations of the countries in the Balkan region, which is de-fined as a conflicting and complex region in the literature of area studies and interna-tional relations, with both regional and global actors, as well as the conditions for the emergence of these modes of relations. Analyzing the relations of the Balkan countries with each other and the political and economic effects of international organizations and actors on the region are among the main objectives of the course. In the first part of the course, the 'Balkan' region will be discussed from a historical perspective and the impact of historical processes such as the Ottoman Empire, the nation-building process and the experience of socialism on the region will be emphasized. The economic, political and so-cial dynamics of the Balkan countries following the beginning of the democratization process after the Cold War will be examined in the second part of the course. In the third part, the impact of international organizations such as the European Union and NATO on the region will be discussed with a special emphasis on the post-Cold War period. Current issues in the Balkans will be thematically discussed in the last part through selected cases with a focus on a wide-range of logics including ideology, democ-ratization/democratic regression, political parties, institutional transformations and de-velopments in foreign policy.

Course Contents

WEEK	TOPICS
1^st Week	Introduction
2^nd Week	The Making of the "Balkans" I: From the Times of the Ottoman Empire to the Nationalization Period
3^rd Week	The Making of the "Balkans" II: The Yugoslavia Experience
4^th Week	Economy and Society in the Balkans in the post-Cold War Era I
5^th Week	Economy and Society in the Balkans in the post-Cold War Era II
6^th Week	The Balkans as a Conflicting Geography: Culture, Identity, and Ethnicity
7^th Week	The Impact of Global Actors in the Region I: the European Union
8^th Week	Mid-term Exam
9^th Week	The Impact of Global Actors in the Region II: the United States, the NATO, and International Organizations
10^th Week	Economy and Politics in the Balkans in the Global Age I: Ideology, Democracy, and Authoritarianism
11^th Week	Economy and Politics in the Balkans in the Global Age II: Political Parties
12^th Week	Economy and Politics in the Balkans in the Global Age II: State-Society Relations and Institutional Changes
13^th Week	Current Issues I: North Macedonia-Greece Relations
14^th Week	Current Issues II: Bosnia-Herzegovina after the Dayton Peace Agreement

Recommended or Required Reading

Adam Fagan, Global Local Linkage in the Western Balkans: The Politics of Environmental Capacity Building in Bosnia-Herzegovina, Political Studies, 56, 3 (2008): 629-652.
Arolda Elbasani (ed.). European Integration and Transformation in the Western Balkans: Eu-ropeanization or Business as Usual, Londra, 2013.
Branislav Radeljic, and Vladimir Dordevic, Clientelism and the Abuse of Power in the Western Balkans, Journal of Balkan and Near Eastern Studies, 22, 5 (2020): 597-612.
Constantine P. Danopoulos, and Kostas G. Messas (eds.) Crises in the Balkans: Views from the Participants, Routledge, New York, 1997.
Dessie Zagorcheva, NATO Enlargement and Security in the Balkans, Journal of Regional Security, 7, 1 (2012): 7-32.
Emilian Kavalski, From the Western Balkans to the Greater Balkans Area: The External Condi-tioning of "Awkward" and "Integrated" States, Mediterranean Quarterly, 17, 3 (2006): 86-100.
Emilian Kavalski, The International Socialization of the Balkans, The Review of International Affairs, 2, 4 (2003): 71-88.
Fernando Casal Bertoa, and Dane Taleski, Regulating Party Politics in the Western Balkans: The Legal Sources of Party System Development in Macedonia, Democratization, 23, 3 (2016).
Florien Bieber, Building Impossible States State-Building Strategies and EU Membership in the Western Balkans, Europe-Asia Studies, 63, 10 (2011): 1783-1802.
Florien Bieber, Nationalist Mobilization and Stories of Serb Suffering: The Kosovo Myth from 600th Anniversary to the Present. Rethinking History, 6, 1 (2002): 95-110.
Florien Bieber, Patterns of Competitive Authoritarianism in the Western Balkans, East Euro-pean Politics, 34, 3 (2018): 337-354.
Gergana Noutcheva, and Senem Aydin-Düzgit, Lost in Europeanisation: The Western Balkans and Turkey, West European Politics, 35, 1 (2012): 59-78.
Gezim Visoka, and Elvin Gjevori, Census Politics and Ethnicity in the Western Balkans. East European Politics, 29, 4 (2013): 479-498.
Hans-Ulrich Seidt, Lessons Learnt from the Crisis in the Balkans, European Security, 5, 1 (1996): 65-70.
Jim Seroka, Issues with Regional Reintegration of the Western Balkans, Journal of Southern Europe and the Balkans, 10, 1 (2008): 15-29.
Kenneth Andresen, Abit Hoxha, and Jonila Godole, New Roles for Media in the Western Balkans: A study of Transitional Journalism, Journalism Studies, 18, 5 (2017): 614-628.
Leon Hartwell, Conflict Resolution: Lessons from the Dayton Peace Process, Negotiation Journal, 35, 4 (2019): 443-469.
Maria Todorova, The Balkans: From Discovery to Invention. Slavic Review, 53,2 (1994): 453-482.
Marko Stojic, Party Responses to the EU in the Western Balkans: Transformation, Opposition or Defiance, Palgrave Macmillan, Cham, 2018.
Miran Lavric, and Florien Bieber, Shifts in Support for Authoritarianism and Democracy in the Western Balkans. Problems of Post-Communism, 68, 1 (2021): 17-26.
Misha Gleny. The Balkans: Nationalism, War, and the Great Powers 1804-2011, Penguin Press, Londra, 2012.
Neophytos Loizides, Symbolic Right-Sizing and Balkan nationalisms: The Macedonia Name Dispute and the Prespa Agreement, Irish Political Studies, 35, 3 (2020): 492-508.
Niall Mulchinock. NATO and the Western Balkans: from Neutral Spectator to Proactive Peacemaker, Palgrave Macmillan, Londra, 2017.
Pal Kolsto, `Western Balkans as the New Balkans: Regional Names as Tools for Stigmatisa-tion and Exclusion, Europe-Asia Studies, 68, 7 (2016): 1245-1263.
Paul J. J. Welfens. Stabilizing and Integrating the Balkans: Economic Analysis of the Stability Pact, EU Reforms and International Organizations, Springer, New York, 2001.
Predrag Cveticanin, Misha Popovikj, and Milo Jovanovi, Informality in the Western Bal-kans: A Culture, a Contextual Rational Choice, or Both, Southeast European and Black Sea Studies, 19, 4 (2019): 585-604.

Planned Learning Activities and Teaching Methods

Lecture
Discussion
Presentation

Assessment Methods and Criteria

	Quantity	Percentage (%)
Mid-term	1	30
Assignment	6	30
Total(%)		60
Contribution of In-term Studies to Overall Grade(%)		60
Contribution of Final Examination to Overall Grade(%)		40
Total(%)		100

ECTS Allocated Based on Student Workload

Activities	Quantity	Duration (Hour)	Total Workload (Hour)
Midterm exam	1	2	2
Preparation for Quiz
Individual or group work	14	6	84
Preparation for Final exam	1	60	60
Course hours	14	3	42
Preparation for Midterm exam	1	55	55
Laboratory (including preparation)
Final exam	1	3	3
Homework	6	9	54
Total Work Load			300
Total Work Load / 30 (h)			10
ECTS Credit of the Course			10

Language of Instruction

Turkish

Work Placement(s)

Programme Qualifications / Learning Outcomes

	LO1	LO2	LO3	LO4
K1
K2		X
K3	X	X	X	X
K4			X	X
K5
K6	X	X	X	X
K7
K8
K9	X	X
K10			X
K11
K12
K13