Mapping the notion of "terrorism" in Serbian and Croation newspapers

The September 11 terrorist attacks in the United States have reconfigured the global public debates as of how to defend a "civilized" world from the "Islamic terrorism." The U.S.-led war on terror against extremist groups also produced and triggered a particular discourse in the former Yugoslav countries. The main aim of this article is to present an example of a study that explores how media appropriate dominant global antiterrorism discourse and apply it to a local context to legitimize and justify specific ideologies and discourse. As our critical discourse analysis shows, Serbian and Croatian newspapers apply the global discourse of terrorism to their local context to excuse their nationalisms and the past military actions against the Muslims in former Yugoslav wars, and with that, they assert their belonging to an antiterrorism global discursive community. © 2006 Sage Publications.

Medication management reviews for people from the former Yugoslavia now resident in Australia

Aim: The objective of this prospective study was to conduct medication management reviews (MMR) in people from a non-English speaking background (NESB) (Bosnian/Serbian/ Croatian, from former Yugoslavia, currently residing in Australia) in their native language in order to identify medication-related problems (needs analysis) and implement appropriate therapeutic interventions, in collaboration with their general practitioners (GPs). Methods: Twenty-five participants entered the study. Each was interviewed and medication-related issues were identified by the health care team. Results: Various interventions (over 150 for the whole group, an average of 6 per participant), based on actual and potentia medication-related problems, were designed to improve the use of medicines. The MMRs introduced effective changes into the participants' health care. Psychological (e.g., feeling depressed) and sociological factors (e.g., costs of medicines, not understanding labels written in English) were identified having significant impacts on medication management. Conclusions: These data confirmed there are avoidable medication-related problems in people from a NESB. GPs and pharmacists working in health care teams with a trained interpreter could greatly improve medication use through regular review and a team approach to problem identification and solving.

Belgrade vs. Serbia: Spatial re-configurations of belonging

This article explores the relationship between the nation, the city, narratives, and belonging in Serbia through an analysis of narratives of a set of 30 interviews with young Belgrade intellectuals aged 23-35. I argue that what appears to be emerging in post-Milosevic Serbia is a new articulation and a new scale of belonging. Most of my informants are mobilising their city identities, moving from a national to an urban perspective. They imaginatively defend their city identity through a discourse that, others' its newcomers, i.e. the rural residents. However, the article is critical of their articulated dichotomous rhetoric of 'Us, the City Cosmopolitans' vs. I Them, the Rural Nationalists' My overall aim is to offer an analysis of the Serbian case, where one sees that the city of Belgrade has become a microcosm and a symbolic expression for modernity, resistance, openness and democracy. However, instead of seeing urbanity as the only locus of modernity, one needs to understand that urbanity does not one-dimensionally lead to the urbanisation of the mind, implying that once you have cities, or live in a city, there is a specific urban, cosmopolitan experience.

Mapping civil society in former Yugoslavia

From the break up of the New Left into single issue groups at the end of the 1960s came a variety of groups representing the peace movement, environmental movement, student movement, women’s movement, and gay liberation movement. This explosion of new social movement activism has been heralded as the age of new radical politics. Many theorists and activists understand new social movements, as replacing the working class as an agent for progressive social change. Scholars and activists now alike debate the possibilities for revolutionary change in this era of multinational capitalism and new nationalisms. This paper examines some of the above claims in the context of the contemporary Serbian civil society. It explores the relationship between the civil society, activism, and narratives in Serbia. In particular, it examines the anti-Milosevic’ movement Otpor! (Resistance), and its discourse, practice and politics in public spaces, through an analysis of narratives of a set of roughly 20 interviews with Otpor! activists, aged 18-35. In the following discussion, then, I will focus on some of the particular dilemmas of contemporary Serbian popular movements - they are dilemmas to do with the growing complexity of media life in the Serbian spaces. I ground my debate on particular uses of the notion of civil society in the narratives of Otpor! activists, while I focus on the question of how do Otpor! activists relate to Leftist/radical politics and the idea of civil society.