Communicative Dimensions of Centre-Periphery Relationships

This paper surveys the post-1989 Europe/Balkan conjuncture from the perspective ‎of communication studies. I employ David Morley’s materialist definition ‎of communication, encompassing exchange/movement of information/‎ideas, goods, and people. Observing the exchange of ideas, we find EU’s Euroscepticism ‎contrasting the Balkans’ Europhilia. Considering the movement ‎of people, the brain-drain from the Balkans is paralleled by incoming migrations ‎and a questioning of whether leaving the region is necessarily advantageous.‎ The movement of goods, finally, elucidates the ascendancy of Chinese ‎investment in the region, confronting Europe with being seen as a periphery‎ of Asia. The materialist communication approach thus reveals unanticipated‎ dynamism (a working-through of inherited inequality), rather than one-way ‎perpetuation of old centre-periphery prejudice. Though historically modelled‎ as Europe’s traumatized inner Other where nationalism was imposed, the Balkans ‎still have much to narrate about impurity of identities and uncertainty as‎ Europe’s new/old possible cultural heritage.‎