'We Are All Beranselo': Political Subjectivation as an Unintended Consequence of Activist Citizenship. Issue 9 (21st October 2017)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Baća, Bojan
• Is Part Of: Europe-Asia studies. Volume 69:Issue 9(2017)
• Page Start: 1430
• Page End: 1454
• Publication Date: 2017-10-21
• Subjects: Europe, Eastern -- Periodicals; Eurasia -- Periodicals; Former Soviet republics -- Periodicals; Soviet Union -- History -- Periodicals; 940
• DOI: 10.1080/09668136.2017.1388357
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0966-8136

Abstract

Abstract: Drawing on Jacques Rancière and Engin F. Isin, this essay discusses the success of a citizen-led mobilisation in rural Montenegro that eschewed the country's predominant ethnopolitical identity cleavages by using innovative repertoires of contention. As a result, this grassroots movement unintentionally brought into being a transcendent political subjectivity that was based on civic principles rather than ethnic values. The essay explores how the Beranselo movement embodied a democratic practice radically different from already available institutional practice of politics, in the process transforming the local ethnos into a demos and creating a dynamic of cross-ethnic, civic-minded mobilisation, organisation, and solidarity.