Abjection, materiality and ontological security: A study of the unfinished Church of Christ the Saviour in Pristina
| Date | 01 September 2021 |
| Published date | 01 September 2021 |
| DOI | 10.1177/0010836720972435 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
https://doi.org/10.1177/0010836720972435
Cooperation and Conflict
2021, Vol. 56(3) 264 –285
© The Author(s) 2020
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DOI: 10.1177/0010836720972435
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Abjection, materiality and
ontological security: A study of
the unfinished Church of Christ
the Saviour in Pristina
Filip Ejdus
Abstract
Ontological security scholarship in International Relations (IR) has predominantly focused on the
importance of social environments for the healthy sense of self. However, material environments
can also provide an important source of ontological security. In my previous work I have argued
that to assume this role of ‘ontic spaces’ material environments need to be discursively linked to
states’ self-identity either through projection or introjection. In this article, I draw on the work of
Julia Kristeva to argue that ontic spaces can also come about through abjection or the rejection of
a material environment from the narrative of the self. I illustrate this theoretical point in the case
study of the Serbian Orthodox Church of Christ the Saviour in Pristina. Its construction began
in 1992 during the rule of Slobodan Milošević but was never finished due to the Kosovo war in
1998/9. Over the years, as all proposed changes are considered to be a threat to a healthy sense
of self of either Serbs or Albanians, the building has been turned into an abjected ontic space, an
ambiguous symbol undermining the self/other and victim/oppressor boundaries and as such both
repels and attracts, threatens and protects.
Keywords
Ontological security, ontic space, materiality, abjection, Kosovo/Serbia, Church of Christ the
Saviour
Introduction
Ontological security scholarship in International Relations (IR) has predominantly focused
on the importance of social environments for self-identity of actors and their relationship
with significant others. Occasionally, scholars have also discussed the relevance of materi-
ality for ontological security processes (Ejdus, 2017; Kinnvall, 2004; Mitzen, 2018). My
starting point is the assumption that material environments, once discursively linked to
Corresponding author:
Filip Ejdus, Faculty of Political Science, University of Belgrade, Jove Ilića 165, 11000 Belgrade, Beograd, Serbia.
Email: Filip.Ejdus@fpn.bg.ac.rs
972435CAC0010.1177/0010836720972435Cooperation and ConflictEjdus
research-article2020
Article
Ejdus 265
collective identity, become ‘ontic spaces’, spatial extensions of the collective self that ren-
der state identities to appear more firm, continuous and real. In my previous work, I dis-
cussed how material environments get linked to collective identity through projection and
introjection (Ejdus, 2017, 2019). Building on these insights, I draw on the work of Julia
Kristeva to argue that ontic spaces can also come about through abjection or the rejection
of a material environment, natural or built, from the narrative of the self (Kristeva, 1982).
In other words, through abjection of material environments, agents aim to stabilize their
self-identity narratives by rejecting what was once internal to the self.
I illustrate this theoretical argument in the case study of the unfinished Church of
Christ the Saviour in Pristina, Kosovo. Twenty years since the end of the war, this unfin-
ished structure remains to be one of the main disputes between Serb and Albanians in the
field of cultural and religious heritage (Surlić and Novaković, 2020). To that end, I ana-
lyse how national master narratives of both sides in the conflict as well as their internal
debates shape the emotional experiences of the unfinished church. Additionally, to better
understand how the site is experienced on the individual level, I interviewed members of
both communities who are engaged with the issue in one way or another. As the case
study shows in detail, the construction of the Church began in 1992 during the rule of the
Serbian president Slobodan Milošević but never finished due to war which broke out in
Kosovo in 1998. Despite the end of the war in 1999, the arrival of international forces,
declaration of Kosovo’s independence in 2008 and subsequent normalization of relation-
ship with Serbia, the unfinished building still lingers on untouched. At the surface, this
appears to be a mere property dispute. A deeper dive into the case reveals that the arrival
at a negotiated solution has been so difficult because the parties see the disagreement as
an ontological zero-sum game in which a gain for one side fundamentally challenges the
self-identity of the other.
The completion of the church, a goal pursued by the Serbian Orthodox Church (SOC)
and the Kosovo Serbs, disturbs the healthy sense of self of the Kosovo Albanians. The
latter see in the building a symbol of their oppression by the ruthless regime of Slobodan
Milošević in the 1990s. On the other hand, the prospect of the destruction of the unfin-
ished church or its deconsecration and transformation into something else, such as a
museum, is seen by the Serbs as yet another affront to their collective dignity and exist-
ence in Kosovo. As a result of this ontological zero-sum game, the unfinished building
has remained untouched for over 20 years. Over time, it has been abjected into an ontic
space which stands as an in-between object, an unwanted symbol for both sides but also
a source of their identity.
The rest of the article unfolds as follows. In the first section, I briefly introduce the
recent material turn in the study of ontological security in world politics. The main contri-
bution I make in this section is to theorize abjection as a previously overlooked form of
constructing ontic spaces. In the second section, I illustrate this theoretical argument in the
case study of the unfinished Serbian Church of Christ the Saviour in Pristina, Kosovo.
Ontological security studies and materiality
Ontological security is the ability of actors to maintain their biographical continuity and
a healthy sense of self. It is a concept which originated within object relations theory, an
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