Balkanization, or Balkanisation, is a pejorative geopolitical term, originally used to describe the process of fragmentation or division of a region or state into smaller regions or states that are often hostile or uncooperative with one another.[1][2]
The term refers to the division of the Balkan peninsula, formerly ruled almost entirely by the Ottoman Empire, into a number of smaller states between 1817 and 1912.[3] It was coined in the early 19th century and has a strong negative connotation.[4] The term however came into common use in the immediate aftermath of the First World War, with reference to the numerous new states that arose from the collapse of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and the Ottoman Empire.
The term is also used to describe other forms of disintegration, including, for instance, the subdivision of the Internet into separate enclaves,[5] However, Robert Morgus' and Tim Maurer's study suggests that the alarmist term “Balkanization” should be replaced with more appropriate terms such as fragmentation and diversity.[6] The term has been used in American urban planning to describe the process of creating gated communities. Andrej Grubacic rejects the racist, colonialist conception of "balkanization" as a process by which "ancient, ethnic hatreds" lead to a process of chauvinistic fragmentation—usually juxtaposed to enlightened, Anglo-European federalization and unification. Grubačić terms this account as "balkanization from above"—Orientalist, colonialist, racist literature acting as the bulwark for the like policies advanced by the European Union and United States, particularly in Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia, Serbia and Kosovo. He contrasts it, on the other hand, with what he terms "balkanization from below," a narrative that insists on social and cultural affinities, as well as on customs in common resulting from interethnic mutual aid and solidarity, and resulting in what can be termed an interethnic self-activity, one that was severed through the Euro-colonial intervention. The historical legacy on which Grubačić draws is that of the Balkan Federation, an horizontal organization of peoples, with no nations or states, organized regionally and organically for mutual aid and empowerment, "a world where many worlds fit."[7]
^Vidanović, Ivan (2006). Rečnik socijalnog rada Udruženje stručnih radnika socijalne zaštite Srbije; Društvo socijalnih radnika Srbije; Asocijacija centra za socijalni rad Srbije; Unija Studenata socijalnog rada. ISBN 86-904183-4-2.(Serbian)
