Europeanization and Statebuilding as Everyday Practices: Performing Europe in the Western Balkans

This book provides a critical understanding of Europeanization and statebuilding in the Western Balkans, using the notion of everyday practices.

This volume argues that it is everyday and mundane events that provide the entry points to showcase a broader set of practices of Europeanization in countries outside the EU. It does this by tracing notions of Europeanization in the everyday statebuilding of Kosovo, Europe Day celebrations in Bosnia and Herzegovina, urban politics in Tirana, and space and place making in Skopje. In doing so, the book shows that everyday events tell us that as much as it is about changing structures, institutions, and economic models, Europeanization is also about changing behaviours and ideas in populations at large. At the same time, the work shows that countries outside the EU use everyday events to perform their belonging to Europe.

This book will be of much interest to students of European Studies, Balkan politics, statebuilding, and International Relations generally.

Vjosa Musliu is Assistant Professor in the Political Science department at the Free University of Brussels (VUB), Belgium.