Europeanisation, LGBT Activism, and Non-Heteronormativity in the Post-Yugoslav Space An Introduction

This chapter sets the stage for the volume by introducing the most relevant conceptual instruments for “unpacking” the increasingly potent symbolic nexus that has developed between non-heterosexual sexualities, LGBT activism(s), and Europeanisation(s) in all of the post-Yugoslav states. The volume problematises the trope of “Europeanisation” as linear and approaches it as a complex, dynamic, and troubled “translation” process which reproduces asymmetrical power relations, equating Europe with progress and civilisation, and hence, intolerance to gays as a form of non-European primitivist Other. Along with summarising the ensuing chapters, I claim that binaries between modernity and retraditionalisation become inscribed not only between the European Union and the post-Yugoslav space, but also within the post-Yugoslav space itself.