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Economic crisis and the crisis of national identity in Slovenia: toward a new notion of social order

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 November 2018

Ana Ješe Perković  and
Tjaša Učakar
Ana Ješe Perković*
Affiliation:
Department of Sociology, Faculty of Arts, University of Ljubljana (UL), Aškerčeva 2, 1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia
Tjaša Učakar
Affiliation:
Department of Sociology, Faculty of Arts, University of Ljubljana (UL), Aškerčeva 2, 1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia
*
*Corresponding author. Email: ana.jese@ff.uni-lj.si
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Abstract

This paper addresses the influence of the economic crisis on national identity in Slovenia. It first analyzes the creation of the contemporary national identity following independence in 1991 that was established in relation to a negatively perceived Balkan identity, which represented “the Other,” and in relation to a “superior” European identity that Slovenia aspired to. With the economic crisis, the dark corners of Slovenia's “successful” post-socialist transition to democracy came to light. Massive layoffs of workers and the bankruptcies of once-solid companies engendered disdain for the political elites and sympathy for marginalized groups. The public blamed the elites for the country's social and economic backsliding, and massive public protests arose in 2012. The aftermath of the protests was a growing need among the people for a new social paradigm toward solidarity. We show that in Slovenia the times of crisis were not times of growing nationalism and exclusion as social theory presupposes but, quite the contrary, they were times of growing solidarity among citizens and with the “Balkan Other.”

Keywords

economic crisisSlovenianational identitysolidarity
Type
Articles
Information
Nationalities Papers , Volume 45 , Issue 2 , March 2017 , pp. 292 - 306
Copyright
Copyright © 2017 Association for the Study of Nationalities 

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