Border studies and ethnology of Southeast Europe

Abstract

This paper deals with the transdisciplinary research area of border studies, in the context of ethnological and anthropological research in Southeast Europe. Border studies have expanded in the last three decades due to paradigmatic and sociopolitical shifts, with visible transfer of focus towards the issues of ?diffusion? of border practices and discourses sometimes termed as b/ordering. Europe and the Balkans experienced contradictory processes of parallel relaxation and abolishing of certain borders, while others are being tightened and established, which is also interpreted anthropologically. Once thought of as specific, Balkans (re)bordering of the 1990s found its b/ordering descendants in the last 20 years throughout Europe and the general rise of border thinking. Besides the traditional approach focusing on liminal and borderlands communities, anthropology in Southeast Europe has also started to investigate not only local communities, but also so-called mobile communities. Anthropology also possesses methodological capacity to discern b/ordering practices and discourses stemming from spatial borders which are not solely induced by the nation-state, and to grasp not only spatial, but also temporal aspects of b/ordering. By combining the ethnographic method, local focus and by primarily researching permanent or contemporary communities defined by the borders and b/ordering, ethnology and anthropology in this part of Europe can substantially contribute to the border studies.