States of Insecurity

Under Communism, Albania and North Korea rejected de-Stalinisation, clung to leader cults, and, after the acrimonious break between Moscow and Beijing, championed ‘self-reliance’. Often mentioned in passing, the Albanian–North Korean parallel has seldom been analysed. This article highlights three aspects that shaped the Communist regimes' insecurity: the social dynamics of war and early threats; the challenge presented by de-Stalinisation in 1956; and the momentous Sino–Soviet split in the early 1960s. Like the boisterous language of Marxism-Leninism and the drive to engineer a non-capitalist society, insecurity was also built into the Communist international system. Clinging to Stalinist methods, then, was also a reflection of the self-destructive potential of calls for reforming the Communist system, which threatened to tear the Eastern bloc apart. Tirana and Pyongyang pursued different paths to ‘self-reliance’, yet they could not help speaking a similar language and facing similar problems. North Korea ultimately joined the Non-Aligned Movement but achieved little success in the Third World. The irony is that tiny, isolated Albania, which shunned the Movement, ultimately ended up non-aligned: violently critical of Moscow, Beijing, and Washington, and distrustful of practically everyone else.     

‘Washing men's feet’: gender,care and migration in Albania during and after communism

This article compares the interrelationships between gender, family structures and intra-family care arrangements during two markedly different periods of Albania's recent history. The first of these, the communist era, was dominated by the autocratic state-socialist regime of Enver Hoxha. In contrast, the post-communist period that followed was characterised by a kind of reactive free-for-all capitalism and high rates of both internal and international migration, the latter mostly to Greece and Italy. Families have been torn apart by this mass emigration, resulting in husbands separated from their wives and children, and older generations left behind by their migrant children. All this contrasts with family, residential and care arrangements during the communist period when not only were families generally living in close proximity, but also state welfare was available to support vulnerable and isolated individuals. Across these periods, however, the burden of care responsibilities fell almost wholly on women, despite the egalitarian ideology of the socialist era and the potentially modernising and empowering effects of post-socialist migration on the agency of women. The article provides a valuable lesson in historicising regimes of gender, family and care across dramatically contrasting social models.     

Detour to Europe: Enlargement,Southeast Europe,and the EU's External Dynamic

An American geographer with extensive field and research experience in Southeast Europe examines the implications of "enlargement fatigue" for Southeast European states aspiring to EU accession. He argues that progress toward EU enlargement into Southeast Europe and further integration through the EU Constitution is no longer restricted to internal (intra-EU) dynamics of widening and deepening, but rather must be complemented by an "external dynamic" involving a coherent EU foreign policy. This "external dynamic" would focus on promoting peace and stability on EU borders and quelling the external factors contributing to popular dissent within EU against expansion and integration. Journal of Economic Literature, Classification Numbers: F02, O15, O18, O19. 1 figure, 41 references.     

Chiseling away at a concrete legacy: Engaging with Communist-era heritage and memory in Albania

Abstract

Albania spent much of the 20th century under one of Europe’s most ideologically repressive regimes. In order to justify and ostensibly protect this system, the Albanian Communist regime (1944–1992) constructed a massive array of defensive works, which formed a major piece of the Hoxhaist (after Enver Hoxha) aesthetic. Twenty years after the fall of Communism, Albanians have gained the freedom to travel abroad, but have largely avoided addressing the legacy of this difficult past within their own society. Based on the theory that some aspects of traumatic memory can be addressed through confronting and re-signifying material heritage, we explore some localized cases in order to comprehend the roots of this concrete legacy, combining theoretical analysis with field experiences in collaboration with the Gjirokastra Foundation. We suggest one possible approach to the difficult process of creating open community dialogue to deal with the scars of a traumatic past and thus begin the healing process.     

Reexamining transport poverty,job access,and gender issues in Central and Eastern Europe

Tirana, the Balkan capital examined in this study, displays patterns of gendered job search behavior and access, which are unique within contemporary Europe and even within post-socialist Central and Eastern Europe. Here, it is a rather spatially constricted job search range rather than transport poverty that prevents women living in first-ring suburbs from attaining satisfactory employment. Female commutes are extraordinarily short and most often on foot. While the city now has nearly one million inhabitants and a high car ownership rate, and is located in Europe, the employment and mobility choices and behaviors of its female residents resemble those in developing rather than developed countries, and in small rather than large cities. The reasons underpinning this situation have more to do with socio-cultural gender barriers and less with transport poverty or labor market weaknesses. This finding might apply to other Balkan capitals or cities outside Europe, which have recently experienced large waves of internal migration and where both existing residents and newcomers have not yet adjusted to ‘big city’ life.     

Recent discoveries of Aurignacian and Epigravettian sites in Albania

Albania is a possible stepping-stone for the dispersal of Homo sapiens into Europe, since Palaeolithic traces (namely from the so-called Uluzzian culture) have been discovered in neighboring Greece and Italy. After two years of searching for evidence of modern humans in Albania we here report on excavated test trenches representing two time slices: an Aurignacian open-air site from southern Albania and two Epigravettian cave sites in central and northern Albania—areas heretofore archaeologically unknown. The new Albanian data fill a gap in the eastern Adriatic archaeological record for Marine Isotope Stages 3 and 2. Adding current knowledge of Late Pleistocene landscape evolution, a “contextual area model” can be constructed describing the habitats of these human populations.     

Across the sea and over the mountains: Documenting Albanian migration

Starting in 1990, Albania has witnessed one of the great emigrations of recent times; ten years later at least 600,000 Albanians, one in five of the population enumerated by the 2001 census, were living abroad, mainly in Greece and Italy. This paper documents and interprets this mass migration, and is in four parts. The first describes the evolution of the emigration against the demographic, economic and political background of Albania's post‐communist transition. The second and third parts look at Albanian migration to, respectively, Italy and Greece: topics covered include the chronology of movement; geographical distribution of the migrants; and the reaction of the host society, which has been one of stigmatisation and exclusion despite Albanians’ key contributions to the labour market. The final part of the paper explores some conceptual interpretations of Albanian migration, stressing the need for a broad synthesis which encompasses both economic and socio‐cultural approaches.     

‘I am not a feminist but…’: women’s activism in post-1991 Albania

Abstract

This article examines the shape organized women’s activism took in Albania after the fall of the communist regime. It also analyses how gender and feminist studies have positioned themselves within the higher education system, the relationship between media and feminism and the new alternative spaces of women’s activism and feminist resistance to gendered power relations. The analysis follows the longue durée of the fraught relationship of debates around feminism during and after the fall of Communism starting with the communist top-down ‘women’s emancipation model’ as well as the lack of bottom-up women’s activism, the post-1991 neo-liberal frame and the generalized post-1991 stigma about ‘emancipation’, ‘equality’ or ‘feminism’, along with the need to resist post-1991 hierarchical gender regimes.     

巴尔干的“大阿尔巴尼亚”:地缘政治关系与演化

阿尔巴尼亚人是巴尔干半岛上的一个古老民族 ,历史上 ,阿尔巴尼亚人曾在 1190年建立起一个独立的阿尔巴尼亚公国 ,其疆域达 10万km2 ,远远超出目前阿尔巴尼亚的范围之外。公元 14世纪 ,随着奥斯帝国的入侵 ,阿尔巴尼亚公国覆灭。到 2 0世纪初 ,巴尔干各国相继独立。由于诸多原因 ,阿尔巴尼亚族被多条国境线划分在国土毗连的不同国家之中 ,形成跨国民族。长期以来 ,阿尔巴尼亚人一直为建立“大阿尔巴尼亚国”而努力。但在冷战时期 ,受两极格局的影响 ,这一问题一度被掩盖。冷战结束以后 ,“大阿尔巴尼亚”问题再度浮出水面 ,成为巴尔干半岛一个突出的政治地理问题。本文从政治地理的角度对“大阿尔巴尼亚”问题产生的地缘政治背景进行了分析 ,并对“大阿尔巴尼亚”的前景进行了预测。     

Negotiating between patriarchy and emancipation: rural-to-urban migrant women in Albania

It is essential to explore the role of gender while analysing internal migration in Albania to account for the differing experiences of men and women. Quantitative studies suggest that Albanian internal migration is pioneered by men, with women merely acceding to their wishes. This article addresses the undervalued role of women in the academic discourse concerning migration in Albania. Utilizing ethnographic research techniques, it explores the role of women migrating from rural to urban areas as part of a larger household and examines the coping and negotiating strategies used for survival in the city. Our findings reveal that women actively participate in the rural-to-urban migration process, including the initial decision to migrate and the choice of destination. Women's narratives provide evidence of specific emancipation strategies through which they express themselves and their new ways of living. Women adjust to and challenge their new urban environment through gaining paid employment and expanding their social networks, as well as experience emancipation through daughters and by changing their appearance, achieving varying degrees of personal and social prosperity.