Based on a combination of my dissertation research and frequent media commentaries and policy analyses on the current state of politics in the former Yugoslavia, Hunger and Fury is an attempt to fill a yawning gap in the literature on the contemporary Western Balkans. Namely, what is the role of civil society in the region's democratization beyond (and against) two decades of international-led, top-down efforts to that end in an era of resurgent local and global authoritarianism?
As a work of academic scholarship, the book aims to contribute to debates about the role protest movements in post-conflict societies. As a work of popular and accessible analysis, it aims to conceptualize the Balkans as a place of vibrant social activism and struggle and not merely as a stage for geopolitical brinkmanship or, worse still, a hinterland of "ancient ethnic hatreds." In short, it is a text useful to students of the region, of the broader phenomenon of post-authoritarian and post-conflict democratization, and all those professionally or personally curious about emerging politics in southeastern Europe. Hunger and Fury: The Crisis of Democracy in the Balkans is available from Hurst Publishers in the U.K. and Europe in and Oxford University Press in North America. The text is also available as a Kindle edition through Amazon. |