Shifts in class and national identities in Macedonia since 1980

This project explores shifts and socioeconomic, political and ethnonational transformations in Macedonian society since 1980 in terms of social class, labour, gender and nationalism. While the focus is on the Republic of Macedonia (as a component of Yugoslavia and subsequently as an independent republic) the phenomena in question are transnational and approached from an interdisciplinary perspective (namely social history, social anthropology, sociology, political science). This joint project seeks to explore interlocking shifts and changes in Macedonian society over the last thirty years, furthering the research activitiesof the two participating research institutions: Centre for Southeast European Studies, University of Graz, Austria and Institute of Social Sciences and Humanities – Skopje.

The main goals of project are:
• To support joint empirical research and foster long term cooperation between our institutions
• For the Austrian participants; to expand existing research activities in other former Yugoslav states (Serbia, Montenegro) to Macedonia
• For the Macedonian participants; to carry out research in Austria and assist in the international dissemination of the institution’s research activities
• To make preliminary research results available as an online working paper by the end of the project and to subsequently publish work in an academic journal
• To support the international scientific careers of young researchers from both countries