Projects
This project is grounded on the theoretical premise that ‘religion' is a specific way for dealing with social and political realities, and addressing both collective and existential anxieties. Its aim is to study the ways in which crisis, and thinking in terms of an ‘end' (of world, of time, of history), meet and influence each other in the everyday practices and beliefs of Balkan people at the turn of the 21st century.
The ravages of nationalism and national struggles, including wars, the proliferation of religiously fuelled conflicts, and more recently painful transition from ‘socialism' to democracy and market capitalism, contributed to shape the Balkan cultures as ‘cultures of pain' assorted to high expectation for salvation. My purpose is to explore the relationships between socioeconomic and political change, popular ideas of end-of-world and salvation, and some emblematic figures of eschatological beliefs.
The main purpose of this project is to explore the complex relationships between (a) radical political change and rapid socioeconomic shifts experienced in most of the Balkan countries since 1989, (b) the most popular ideas of end-of-world and salvation at the turn of the 21st century, or the millennium, and (c) traditional and new emblematic figures of eschatological beliefs.