Articulation of Resistance in the Discourse of the 1996/97 Serbian Protests: Political Struggle through Culture and Symbolic Geography
Апстракт
The present article analyzes the discursive articulation of resistance to the regime of Slobodan Milosevic during the civil and student protests in Serbia in the winter of 1996/97. By applying critical discourse analysis to the opposition press of the time, we find that the rhetoric during the protests centered around the notions of civilization and culture. In variations of orientalism, balkanism and "urbocentric exclusivism," the "Us" and "Them" identifications were constructed through mutually interlaced semantic pairs: civilization-backwardness, culture - primitivism, Europe - Balkans/Orient, urbanity - rurality and democracy - communism. By drawing on existing research on the role of symbolic geography and cultural distinctions in the creation of social cleavages in the post-Yugoslav societies, our analysis presents how cultural traits and affiliations, "urbanity" and individual characteristics, such as intelligence, critical ability and sense of humor, were used for the framing o...f protests, but also as means of political struggle in the protests. A detailed reconstruction of discursive strategies of reporting on the protests allows for a contemporary assessment of the limits of protest politics articulated in this way, and its comparison with a recent wave of mobilization of citizens of Serbia in 2016 and 2017.
Кључне речи:
symbolic geography / Serbia / protests / culture / critical discourse analysisИзвор:
Sociologija, 2017, 59, 4, 476-496Издавач:
- Sociološko udruženje Srbije i Crne Gore, Beograd i Univerzitet u Beogradu - Filozofski fakultet - Institut za sociološka istraživanja, Beograd
DOI: 10.2298/SOC1704476P
ISSN: 0038-0318
WoS: 000419590900005
Scopus: 2-s2.0-85042443263
Институција/група
Sociologija / SociologyTY - JOUR AU - Petrović Trifunović, Tamara PY - 2017 UR - http://reff.f.bg.ac.rs/handle/123456789/2384 AB - The present article analyzes the discursive articulation of resistance to the regime of Slobodan Milosevic during the civil and student protests in Serbia in the winter of 1996/97. By applying critical discourse analysis to the opposition press of the time, we find that the rhetoric during the protests centered around the notions of civilization and culture. In variations of orientalism, balkanism and "urbocentric exclusivism," the "Us" and "Them" identifications were constructed through mutually interlaced semantic pairs: civilization-backwardness, culture - primitivism, Europe - Balkans/Orient, urbanity - rurality and democracy - communism. By drawing on existing research on the role of symbolic geography and cultural distinctions in the creation of social cleavages in the post-Yugoslav societies, our analysis presents how cultural traits and affiliations, "urbanity" and individual characteristics, such as intelligence, critical ability and sense of humor, were used for the framing of protests, but also as means of political struggle in the protests. A detailed reconstruction of discursive strategies of reporting on the protests allows for a contemporary assessment of the limits of protest politics articulated in this way, and its comparison with a recent wave of mobilization of citizens of Serbia in 2016 and 2017. PB - Sociološko udruženje Srbije i Crne Gore, Beograd i Univerzitet u Beogradu - Filozofski fakultet - Institut za sociološka istraživanja, Beograd T2 - Sociologija T1 - Articulation of Resistance in the Discourse of the 1996/97 Serbian Protests: Political Struggle through Culture and Symbolic Geography EP - 496 IS - 4 SP - 476 VL - 59 DO - 10.2298/SOC1704476P ER -
@article{ author = "Petrović Trifunović, Tamara", year = "2017", abstract = "The present article analyzes the discursive articulation of resistance to the regime of Slobodan Milosevic during the civil and student protests in Serbia in the winter of 1996/97. By applying critical discourse analysis to the opposition press of the time, we find that the rhetoric during the protests centered around the notions of civilization and culture. In variations of orientalism, balkanism and "urbocentric exclusivism," the "Us" and "Them" identifications were constructed through mutually interlaced semantic pairs: civilization-backwardness, culture - primitivism, Europe - Balkans/Orient, urbanity - rurality and democracy - communism. By drawing on existing research on the role of symbolic geography and cultural distinctions in the creation of social cleavages in the post-Yugoslav societies, our analysis presents how cultural traits and affiliations, "urbanity" and individual characteristics, such as intelligence, critical ability and sense of humor, were used for the framing of protests, but also as means of political struggle in the protests. A detailed reconstruction of discursive strategies of reporting on the protests allows for a contemporary assessment of the limits of protest politics articulated in this way, and its comparison with a recent wave of mobilization of citizens of Serbia in 2016 and 2017.", publisher = "Sociološko udruženje Srbije i Crne Gore, Beograd i Univerzitet u Beogradu - Filozofski fakultet - Institut za sociološka istraživanja, Beograd", journal = "Sociologija", title = "Articulation of Resistance in the Discourse of the 1996/97 Serbian Protests: Political Struggle through Culture and Symbolic Geography", pages = "496-476", number = "4", volume = "59", doi = "10.2298/SOC1704476P" }
Petrović Trifunović, T.. (2017). Articulation of Resistance in the Discourse of the 1996/97 Serbian Protests: Political Struggle through Culture and Symbolic Geography. in Sociologija Sociološko udruženje Srbije i Crne Gore, Beograd i Univerzitet u Beogradu - Filozofski fakultet - Institut za sociološka istraživanja, Beograd., 59(4), 476-496. https://doi.org/10.2298/SOC1704476P
Petrović Trifunović T. Articulation of Resistance in the Discourse of the 1996/97 Serbian Protests: Political Struggle through Culture and Symbolic Geography. in Sociologija. 2017;59(4):476-496. doi:10.2298/SOC1704476P .
Petrović Trifunović, Tamara, "Articulation of Resistance in the Discourse of the 1996/97 Serbian Protests: Political Struggle through Culture and Symbolic Geography" in Sociologija, 59, no. 4 (2017):476-496, https://doi.org/10.2298/SOC1704476P . .