Neoliberal co-optation, power relations and informality in the Balkan International Relations profession
| DOI | 10.1177/0047117819897303 |
| Date | 01 March 2020 |
| Author | Goran Tepšić,Nemanja Džuverović |
| Published date | 01 March 2020 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
https://doi.org/10.1177/0047117819897303
International Relations
2020, Vol. 34(1) 84 –104
© The Author(s) 2019
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DOI: 10.1177/0047117819897303
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Neoliberal co-optation,
power relations and
informality in the Balkan
International Relations
profession
Nemanja Džuverović and
Goran Tepšić
University of Belgrade
Abstract
The article attempts to assess the importance of informal networks in achieving internationally
recognised academic standards set in four Balkan countries by the reform of higher education
institutions and the International Relations (IR) profession in particular. Starting from the core-
periphery division of the Global IR, the authors are examining the results of these reforms
by focusing on the neoliberalisation of the university and the professional subordination of
peripheral IR communities to the Western-dominated epistemic community (including ‘brain
drain’ and recruitment of ‘organic’ intellectuals). Based on the interviews conducted with Balkan
IR scholars, the authors conclude that informality is viewed as social capital, that is, a means of
acquiring benefits by virtue of personal ties with the ‘gatekeepers’ of core IR. In that respect,
interviewees suggest three possible solutions for overcoming the epistemic dependence of
the Balkan IR community: development of local standards, stimulation of critical approach and
better preparation for international standards, while the authors of the article also propose the
fourth possibility: abandoning the core-periphery division, and thinking beyond geopolitical and
geocultural divisions – the main idea behind the Global IR project.
Keywords
epistemic dependency, Global IR, higher education reforms, informality, the Balkans
Corresponding author:
Nemanja Džuverović, Faculty of Political Science, University of Belgrade, Jove Ilića 165, 11000 Belgrade,
Serbia.
Email: nemanja.dzuverovic@fpn.bg.ac.rs
897303IRE0010.1177/0047117819897303International RelationsDžuverović and Tepšić
research-article2019
Article
Džuverović and Tepšić 85
Introduction
After the wars for Yugoslav legacy,1 the countries in the Balkan region experienced many
far-reaching changes, ranging from institutional and market reforms in Slovenia and
Croatia to comprehensive projects of peace and statebuilding in Bosnia and Herzegovina
(BiH) and, most recently, in Kosovo.2
Once they achieved (negative) peace, stabilised their economies and established par-
liamentary systems, countries of the region began, among other things, the process of
reforming higher education (HEI) and research institutions. This process started in the
early 1990s and included three waves of legislation. The first, according to Zgaga,
focused on the general framework following the profound changes that occurred as a
result of transition from one-party to multi-party political systems and from command to
market economies.3 This phase also included a promotion of democratic values, which
outlined universities as ‘a site of education for democratic citizenship . . . a site of criti-
cal knowledge’, a place ‘for knowledge construction about international relations’4 and
a means of integration into the new post-Cold War world. However, this popular belief
was soon proven wrong, as these new ‘democratic’ societies had to confront ‘the moral
collapse of the university’ (corporatisation of the university) that was already taking
place in some of the Western countries.5
The second wave of legislation was tied to the post-conflict phase (after the 2000s),
when countries of the region started to approach to European Union (EU). This led to the
process of HEI reforms in line with the so-called Bologna and Lisbon process (hereafter
Bologna/Lisbon) and the European Higher Education Area principles.6 The results of
this phase have been mixed, which eventually led to many inconsistencies7 and collision
between the reality of the state of HEI and the image created by ministries, universities
and the academic community (third phase).
During this entire process, the driving force behind the reforms was the EU strategy
of ‘knowledge-based economy’, entrenched in the neoliberal doctrine since the early
1990s.8 The strategy envisioned HEI as a private good with the primary role of driving
economic progress, reducing public funding and reorienting towards private investment.9
In order for this to be achieved, intellectual enquiry had to be substituted with perfor-
mance, due to which quality assurance measures, academic audits and performance indi-
cators became central components of the reform attempt.10 For the Balkan countries (and
the Global South), whose goal was to access knowledge-based economy but which did
not possess any structural preconditions for doing so, informal networks proved to be an
efficient way to transcend the ‘reality-norms’ gap, surmount the problems and keep the
appearance of continuous reform.
Accordingly, the text looks at the role of informal networks in four Balkan countries
(BiH, Croatia, Montenegro and Serbia) in attaining internationally recognised aca-
demic standards set by the reform of institutions of higher education. The central
research question is, ‘How does the reform of higher education affect the Balkan
International Relations (IR) community in the context of intradisciplinary core-periph-
ery division?’ It seems paradoxical that institutional (formal) reforms aimed at bring-
ing more coherence, inclusiveness and accessibility to higher education systems across
Europe and created the need for more informality to fulfil the global academic criteria.
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