The Left in Southeast Europe: Identities and Discourses

The conference will bring together a series of researchers, mainly from the Balkans, to reflect together on what the left is in this part of Europe.

Programme

4th of April, 2024

09h00 Opening Speech

09h15 Session 1 - Party Politics in Southeast Europe (11h00 Coffee Break)

Bekim Baliqi (University of Prishtina) - Transformation from Social Movement to the Left Party: A study of ‘Vetëvendosje’ in Kosovo

Zoran Stojiljković (University of Belgrade) - Socialist Party of Serbia (SPS): Decades of wandering in crises

Jorgji Kote (independent Researcher) - Successor parties’ identity formation and change: Albanian case.

Liutauras Gudžinskas (University of Vilnius) - Searching for a recipe to organize a party successfully: application of Ostrom-Wilson ‘polycentric governance’ theory to describe and prescribe evolution of the post-communist democratic left

Jordan Jorgji (University of Korçë) - A comparative approach on the Albanian Socialist Party and the Greek Syriza

13h00 Lunch Break

13h45 Session 2 - The Left and the Others

Ivaylo Dinev (Centre for East European and International Studies, Berlin) - The political left in moments of crisis

Ervin Goci (University of Tirana) - Grassroots movements, excluded public, as representatives of the leftist discourse in the Albanian public space

Jasmin Hasanović (University of Sarajevo) - Counter-Hegemonic Practices in Resisting Nationalist Hegemony: Struggles and Challenges of Leftist Mobilization and Organization in Post-Socialist Bosnia and Herzegovina

Gianmarco Bucci (Scuola Normale Superiore of Pisa) - Political Cooperation and Ideological Convergence between the Bulgarian Left and Radical Right
 

15h45 Conclusions

Following: Tour of Tirana and Social Dinner

 

5th of April, 2024

09h00 Session 3 - Political Discourses of the Left (11h00 Coffee Break)

Berina Beširović (University of Sarajevo) - The Discourse of the Left in The Context of The Union Movement-Case Study of Bosnia and Herzegovina

Mark Marku (University of Tirana) - The discourse of change of the new Albanian left: from utopia to dystopia

Amer Kurtović (Social Sciences Research Center, Sarajevo) - The Bosnia and Herzegovina Social Democratic Party’s “Yugoslavia” Discourse(s): An Analysis of its Performative Structures

Emilija Celakoska and Ana Chupeska (Ss. Cyril and Methodius University, Skopje) - Employing equal-opportunity models in analysis of some egalitarian values regarding pre- and post-transition Left in North Macedonia

Nemanja Stanimirović (University of Belgrade) - Marxist-humanism in the service of nationalism. Mihailo Marković and SPS 1990-1995

13h00 Lunch Break

13h45 Session 4 - The Left in Southeast Europe from a Historical Perspective

Artan Fuga (University of Tirana) - Transitions in Albania marked by conflicts between ex-Communist political actors

Entela Baci Hoxhaj (University of Shkodër) - Tracking constitutional reforms in Southeast Europe under the influence of communist successor parties

Božica Slavković Mirić (Institute for recent history of Serbia, Belgrade) - The issue of Kosovo and Metohija in the establishment of good relations between the Yugoslav and Albanian communist parties after the Second World War

Gabriele Leone (University of Lapland, Rovaniemi) - Beyond Borders: Unraveling the Kurdish Left in Turkey’s Post-Democratic Transition