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Europeanisation, LGBT Activism, and Non-Heteronormativity in the Post-Yugoslav Space: An Introduction

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LGBT Activism and Europeanisation in the Post-Yugoslav Space

Part of the book series: Palgrave Studies in European Political Sociology ((PSEPS))

Abstract

This chapter sets the stage for the volume by introducing the most relevant conceptual instruments for “unpacking” the increasingly potent symbolic nexus that has developed between non-heterosexual sexualities, LGBT activism(s), and Europeanisation(s) in all of the post-Yugoslav states. The volume problematises the trope of “Europeanisation” as linear and approaches it as a complex, dynamic, and troubled “translation” process which reproduces asymmetrical power relations, equating Europe with progress and civilisation, and hence, intolerance to gays as a form of non-European primitivist Other. Along with summarising the ensuing chapters, I claim that binaries between modernity and retraditionalisation become inscribed not only between the European Union and the post-Yugoslav space, but also within the post-Yugoslav space itself.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Lewin and Leap (2002, p. 12) claim that “conducting lesbian/gay research is tantamount to coming out—whether one is actually lesbian/gay or not. Although doing research in New Guinea, for example, does not lead to the assumption that one must be a native of that region, studying lesbian/gay topics is imagined as only possible for a ‘native’”.

  2. 2.

    Even though the LGBT population is often referred to as a “minority”, I put this term in quotation marks to invite the reader to consider this practice as an expression of identity politics that essentialises sexual identifications.

  3. 3.

    The other two definitions offered by Héritier (2005) are the following: “Europeanisation is used as an equivalent of European integration. As such, it denotes the pooling of national competences in different policy areas at the supernational level in order to engage in joint policymaking (p. 199). (…) Under the second notion, Europeanisation is defined in a more restrictive sense, conceived of as the impact of clearly definite, individual EU policy measures on the existing policies, political and administrative processes and structures of member states” (p. 200).

  4. 4.

    See, for example, Johnson (2012); Kuhar and Švab (2013); Mršević (2013); Stakić (2011); Vuletić (2013).

  5. 5.

    In our case, this heterosexual matrix is an amalgam of heterosexuality, masculinity, and revived presence of religious institutions in public and political life. See, for example, Kuhar (2015) and Sremac and Ruard Ganzevoort (2015).

  6. 6.

    In the sphere of global LGBT politics, it is becoming increasingly relevant to consider not only the East-West, but also the South-North division if one is to account for recent LGBT rights-related advances in, for example, Spain, South Africa, Portugal, Iceland or Argentina. See, for example, Pichardo Galán (2013).

  7. 7.

    However, Croatia recognises life partnerships for same-sex couples on the basis of the Life Partnership Act which was passed in July 2014. This law makes same-sex couples equal to married couples without allowing adoption.

  8. 8.

    I am grateful to my friend and colleague Paul Stubbs for pointing my attention to Boym’s differentiation between restorative and reflective nostalgia.

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  1. Amsterdam Institute for Social Science Research, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

    Bojan Bilić

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  1. Amsterdam Institute for Social Science Research, University of Amsterdam AISSR, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

    Bojan Bilić

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Bilić, B. (2016). Europeanisation, LGBT Activism, and Non-Heteronormativity in the Post-Yugoslav Space: An Introduction. In: Bilić, B. (eds) LGBT Activism and Europeanisation in the Post-Yugoslav Space. Palgrave Studies in European Political Sociology. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-57261-5_1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-57261-5_1

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