Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Regional heterotopia of Central Europe: ‘lost’ identity in the process of deterritorialisation of Europe

  • Original Article
  • Published:
Journal of International Relations and Development Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

In this text, the authors reflect on the historical, political and geographical changes of discourse on Central Europe. We claim that the contemporary re-actualisation of this discourse faces the continent with a form of regional heterotopia and the geography of the scattered — where the old contours of borders, space and territoriality can no longer be defined. Despite its different meanings, historically the discourse on Central Europe has had real implications for integrative political processes. Since this discourse of the European inner other cannot be placed in the ‘imaginary centre’ of Europe anymore, we discuss the significance of this discourse as a model that reflects the contemporary processes of deconstruction of the conventional geography of territorialisation and as a model of cultural identity that has a potential for political motivation in the processes of integration in European and international institutions as opposed to the models of local national separation and closure.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Allen, John, Doreen Massey and Allan Cochrane (2002) Rethinking the Region, London and New York: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Amin, Ash (2004) ‘Regions Unbound: Towards a New politics of Place’, Geografiska Annaler. Series B, Human Geography 86(1): 33–44.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Anderson, Benedict (1991) Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism, London and New York: Verso.

    Google Scholar 

  • Arac, Jonathan (1994) ‘Foucault and Central Europe: A polemical Speculation’, Boundary 2 21(3): 197–210.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ash, Timothy G. (1986) ‘Does Central Europe Exist?’ New York Review of Books 33(15): 112–15, (9 October).

    Google Scholar 

  • Ash, Timothy G. (1990) ‘Mitteleuropa?’, Daedalus 119(1): 1–21.

    Google Scholar 

  • Balibar, Étienne (2004) We, the People of Europe? Reflection on Transnational Citisenship, Princeton and Oxford: Princeton University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Balibar, Étienne (2009) ‘Europe as Borderland’, Environment and Planing D: Society and Space 27(2): 190–215.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Balibar, Etjen, [Étienne Balibar] (2008) ‘‘Šta je granica?’[What is a Border?]’, Treći program Radio Beograda 137–138(1–2): 98–106.

    Google Scholar 

  • Batt, Judy (2007) ‘Introduction: Defining Central and Eastern Europe’, in Stephen White, Judy Batt and Paul G. Lewis eds, Developments in Central and East European Politics 4, 1–20, Hampshire: Palgrave Macmillan.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bauman, Zygmunt (1995) ‘Making and Unmaking of Strangers’, Thesis Eleven 43(1): 1–16.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bauman, Zygmunt (2000) Liquid Modernity, Cambridge: Polity Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bauman, Zygmunt (2004a) Europe: An Unfinished Adventure, Cambridge: Polity Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bauman, Zygmunt (2004b) Identity, Cambridge: Polity.

    Google Scholar 

  • Berkhout, Susara J. (2005) ‘The Decentralisation Debate: Thinking about Power’, International Review of Education/Internationale Zeitschrift für Erziehungswissenschaft 51(4): 313–27.

    Google Scholar 

  • Betz, Hans-Georg (1990) ‘Mitteleuropa and Post-Modern European Identity’, New German Critique 50: 173–92.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Blasius, Johann Heinrich (1857) Naturgeschichte der Säugethiere Deutschlands und der Angrenzenden Länder von Mitteleuropa, Braunschweig: F. Vieweg und Sohn.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bloch, Marc (2001) Feudalno društvo [Feudal Society], Zagreb: Golden marketing.

    Google Scholar 

  • Borneman, John and Nick Fowler (1997) ‘Europenization’, Annual Review of Anthropology 26: 487–514.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bowman, Glenn (2003) ‘Beyond Othering’, American Ethnologist 30(4): 500–1.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Clessin, Stephan (1887) Die Mollusken-Fauna Mitteleuropa’s, Nürnberg: Bauer & Raspe.

    Google Scholar 

  • Crampton, Jeremy W. and Stuart Elden (2007) Space, Knowledge and Power: Foucault and Geography, Burlington: Ashgate.

    Google Scholar 

  • Curylo, Barbara (2005) ‘Central Europe — Unfinished Project?’ International Affairs Review 1(152): 126–31.

    Google Scholar 

  • De Montaigne, Michel (1993) Essays, London: Penguin Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • Delanty, Gerard and Chris Rumford (2005) Rethinking Europe: Social Theory and the Implications of Europeanization, London and New York: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Deleuze, Gilles and Felix Guattari (1983) Anti-Oedipus: Capitalism and Schizophrenia, Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Deleuze, Gilles (2006) Foucault, Minneapolis and London: University of Minnesota Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Derrida, Jacques (1992) The Other Heading: Reflections on Today’s Europe, Bloomington: Indiana University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Drakulić, Slavenka (2009) ‘The Balkans — From Noun to Verb (and Back)’, Journal of International Relations and Development 12(4): 364–70.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Elbe, Stefan (2001) ‘We Good Europeans …: Genealogical Reflections on the Idea of Europe’, Millennium: Journal of International Studies 30(2): 259–83.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Farineli, Franko (2012) Geografija: jedan uvod u modele sveta [Geografia: Un’ introduzione ai modelli del mondo], Novi Sad: Akademska knjiga.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fawn, Rick (2010) ‘Central Europe: On the Move? And at Whose and What Cost?’ Perspectives 18(2): 79–94.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Foucault, Michel (1980) ‘Questions on Geography’, in Colin Gordon ed., Power/Knowledge Selected Interviews and Other Writings 1972–1977 Michel Foucault, 63–77, New York: Pantheon Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • Foucault, Michel (1984a) ‘Space, Knowledge and Power’, in Paul Rabinow ed., The Foucault Reader, 239–56, New York: Pantheon Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • Foucault, Michel (1984b) ‘Nietzsche, Genealogy, History’, in Paul Rabinow ed., The Foucault Reader, 76–100, New York: Pantheon Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • Foucault, Michel (1986) ‘Of Other Spaces’, Diacritics 16(1): 22–27.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Foucault, Michel (1994a) ‘Réponse à une question’, in Daniel Defert and Francois Ewald eds, Dits et écrits 2, 1954–1969, 673–95, Paris: Gallimard.

    Google Scholar 

  • Foucault, Michel (1994b) ‘Structuralisme et poststructuralisme’, in Daniel Defert and Francois Ewald eds, Dits et écrits 4, 1980–1988, 431–53, Paris: Gallimard.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gasché, Rodolphe (2009) Europe, or the Infinite Task: A Study of a Philosophical Concept, Stanford: Stanford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • G. G. C (1904) ‘Central Europe by Joseph Partsch (Review)’, Geographical Journal 23(2): 242–44.

  • Gottdiener, Mark (1993) ‘A Marx for our Time: Henri Lefebvre and the Production of Space’, Sociological Theory 11(1): 129–34.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Habermas, Jürgen (2001) The Postnational Constellation, Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Harvey, David (1990) The Condition of Postmodernity, Cambridge and Oxford: Blackwell.

    Google Scholar 

  • Harvey, David (2005a) A Brief History of Neoliberalism, Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Harvey, David (2005b) ‘Space as a Key Word’, in Hans Gebhardt and Peter Meusburger eds, Spaces of Neoliberalization: Towards a Theory of Uneven Geographical Development, Hettner-Lecture 2004, 93–119, Heidelberg: Franz Steiner Verlag.

    Google Scholar 

  • Johnson, Lonnie R. (1996) Central Europe: Enemies, Neighbors, Friends, New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Judt, Tony (1990) ‘The Rediscovery of Central Europe’, Daedalus 119(1): 23–54.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kiš, Danilo, ed. (2007) ‘‘Varijacije na srednjoevropske teme’ [Variations on the Theme of Central Europe]’, in, Život, literatura, 33–55, Beograd: Prosveta.

    Google Scholar 

  • Konrád, György (1984) Antipolitik — Mitteleuropäische Meditationen, Frankfurt: Suhrkamp Erschienen.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kretschmer, Konrad (1904) Historische Geographie von Mitteleuropa, München and Berlin: Druck und Verlag von R. Oldenbourg.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kundera, Milan (1983) ‘L’Occident kidnappe ou la tragédie de L’Europe centrale’, Le Débat 5(27): 3–23.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kundera, Milan (1984) ‘The Tragedy of Central Europe’, New York Review of Books 31(7): 33–8, (26 April).

    Google Scholar 

  • Lefebvre, Henri (1991) The Production of Space, Oxford: Blackwell.

    Google Scholar 

  • Le Goff, Jacques (1974) Srednjovekovna civilizacija Zapadne Evrope [La civilisation de l'Occident médiéval], Beograd: Jugoslavija.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lorenso, Eduardo, [Eduardo Lourenço] (2011) Razočarana Evropa: prilozi za jednu evropsku mitologiju [A Europa desencantada], Novi Sad: Mediterran Publishing.

    Google Scholar 

  • Magris, Klaudio (2007) Dunav [Danubio], Beograd: Otkrovenje.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mannheim, Karl (1952) Essays on the Sociology of Knowledge, London: Routledge and Kegan Paul.

    Google Scholar 

  • May, Jon and Nigel Thrift eds, (2001) Timespace: Geographies of Temporality, London: Routledge.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Meyer, Henry C. (1946) ‘Mitteleuropa in German Political Geography’, Annals of the Association of American Geographers 36(3): 178–94.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Naumann, Friedrich (1915[1916]) Mitteleuropa, Berlin: Verlag von Georg Reimer.

    Google Scholar 

  • Neumann, Iver B. (1999) Uses of the Other: ‘The East’ in European Identity Formation, Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Neumann, Iver B. and Einar Wigen (2013) ‘The Importance of the Eurasian Steppe to the Study of International Relations’, Journal of International Relations and Development 16(3): 311–30.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Nietzsche, Friedrich (2002) Beyond Good and Evil, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Okey, Robin (1992) ‘Central Europe/Eastern Europe: Behind the Definitions’, Past & Present (The Cultural and Political Construction of Europe) 137: 102–33.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Orel, Katrin (2012) Srednja Evropa: od ideje do istorije [Cette Europe qu’on dit Centrale: Des Habsbourg à l’intégration européenne 1815–2004], Beograd: Clio.

    Google Scholar 

  • Paasi, Anssi (2001) ‘Europe as a Social Process and Discourse: Considerations of Place, Boundaries and Identity’, European Urban and Regional Studies 8(1): 7–28.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Prozorov, Sergei (2011) ‘The Other as Past and Present: Beyond the Logic of “Temporal Othering” in IR Theory’, Review of International Studies 37(3): 1273–93.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rupnik, Jacques (1990) ‘Central Europa or Mitteleuropa?’ Daedalus 119(1): 249–78.

    Google Scholar 

  • Růžicka, Jan (2010) ‘From Eastern Europe to Central Europe and Back? On Regions, Transatlantic Relations, and Central Europe’, Perspectives 18(2): 63–78.

    Google Scholar 

  • Said, Edward W. (1979) Orientalism, New York: Vintage Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • Schöpflin, George (1989) ‘Central Europe: Definitions Old and New’, in George Schöpflin and Nancy Wood eds, In Search of Central Europe, 7–29, Cambridge: Polity.

    Google Scholar 

  • Schöpflin, George and Nancy Wood, eds, (1989) In Search of Central Europe, Cambridge: Polity.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sinnhuber, Karl A. (1954) ‘Central Europe: Mitteleuropa: Europe Centrale: An Analysis of a Geographical Term’, Transactions and Papers (Institute of British Geographers) 20: 15–39.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Soja, Edward W. (1989) Postmodern Geographies: The Reassertion of Space in Critical Social Theory, London and New York: Verso.

    Google Scholar 

  • Strohecker, Jonas Rudolph (1869) Sytematische Anleitung zu botanischen Excursionen in Mitteleuropa, München: E. H. Gummi.

    Google Scholar 

  • Svilar, Predrag (2011) Medijska konstrukcija Zapadnog Balkana [Media Construction of The Western Balkans], Novi Sad: Mediterran Publishing.

    Google Scholar 

  • Tejlor, Alen Dž. P., [Alan John Percivale Taylor] (2001) Habsburška monarhija [The Habsburg Monarchy] 1908–1918, Beograd: Clio.

    Google Scholar 

  • Therborn, Göran (2006) ‘Post-Western Europe and the Plural Asias’, in Gerard Delanty ed., Europe and Asia Beyond East and West, 24–44, London and New York: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Todorova, Maria (2009) Imagining The Balkans, Oxford: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Valéry, Paul (1963) The Outlook for Intelligence, New York and Evanston: Harper & Row Publishers.

    Google Scholar 

  • Volerstin, Imanuel, [Immanuel Wallerstein] (2004) Opadanje američke moći [The Decline of American Power], Podgorica: CID.

    Google Scholar 

  • Von Siebold, Carl Theodor Ernst (1863) Die Süsswasserfische von Mitteleuropa, Leipzig: Verlag von Wilhelm Engelmann.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Von Tubeuf, Karl Freiherr (1897) Die Nadelhölzer: mit besonderer Berücksichtigung der in Mitteleuropa winterharten Arten, Stuttgart: Verlag von E. Ulmer.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wallerstein, Immanuel (1991) ‘The Invention of TimeSpace Realities: Towards an Understanding of our Historical Systems’, Geography 73(4): 5–22.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wallerstein, Immanuel (1998) ‘The Time of Space and the Space of Time: the Future of Social Science’, Political Geography 17(1): 71–82.

    Article  Google Scholar 

The authors’ recent references in the field of sociology of regions are:

  • Marinković, Dušan (2013) ‘Igre otvaranja i zatvaranja: geografija rasutosti’ [Games of opening and closing: geography of scatteredness], in Aleksandra Đurić Bosnić, ed., Zatvoreno-otvoreno: društveni i kulturni kontekst u Vojvodini 2000–2013 [Closed-opened: social and cultural context in Vojvodina 2000–2013], 21–28, Novi Sad: CINK.

  • Marinković, Dušan and Dušan Ristić (2013) ‘Postmoderne regionalizacije prostora u društvenim naukama’ [Postmodern regionalizations of space in the social sciences], in Valentina Sokolovska and Dušan Marinković, eds, Regioni i regionalizacija 2: sociološki aspekti [Regions and regionalization 2: sociological aspects], 39–59, Novi Sad: Mediterran Publishing.

  • Marinković, Dušan (2012) ‘Regionalni drugi’ [Regional other], in Valentina Sokolovska and Dušan Marinković, eds, Regioni i regionalizacija: sociološki aspekti [Regions and regionalization: sociological aspects], 11–35, Novi Sad: Mediterran Publishing.

  • Ristić, Dušan (2012) ‘Diskurzivni karakter regionalnog identiteta’ [Discursive character of regional identity], in Valentina Sokolovska and Dušan Marinković, eds, Regioni i regionalizacija: sociološki aspekti [Regions and regionalization: sociological aspects], 93–117, Novi Sad: Mediterran Publishing.

  • Marinković, Dušan and Dušan Ristić, ‘Foucault’s “Hall of Mirrors”: An Investigation into Geo-epistemology’, in Geografiska Annaler Series B, Human Geography (To be published).

Download references

Acknowledgements

The paper was conceived as part of the project on ‘Sociological Aspects of Regionalization: Comparative Analysis’, funded by the Provincial Secretariat for Science and Technological Development of the Autonomous Province of Vojvodina, the Republic of Serbia. The authors would like to thank Iztok Simoniti (the University of Ljubljana), Doris Wastl-Walter (the University of Bern) and the anonymous reviewers for their comments that greatly contributed to improving the final version of the paper.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Sociology, University of Novi Sad, Zorana Đinđića 2, Novi Sad, 21000, Serbia

    Dušan Marinković & Dušan Ristić

Authors
  1. Dušan Marinković
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Dušan Ristić
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Dušan Marinković.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Marinković, D., Ristić, D. Regional heterotopia of Central Europe: ‘lost’ identity in the process of deterritorialisation of Europe. J Int Relat Dev 21, 146–171 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1057/jird.2015.28

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/jird.2015.28

Keywords

Search

Navigation