Besa Luci in conversation with Visar Ymeri and Aleksandar Pavlović.

In this episode, we look at the ways we talk about the relationship between Kosovo and Serbia.

Since 2011, the dominant framework for talking about the relationship between the two countries has been in the context of the EU-mediated dialogue. 

From time to time, the media might report on cultural cooperation, instances of economic integration or citizen-based initiatives. But such reports are few and far between, and often disappear amid the constant flow of sensationalist or conflict-driven narratives.

Are there other stories and narratives that go beyond ethnic enmity and EU diplomatic bureaucracy?

Though there appears to be little academic exchange or collaboration between the two countries, the recently published book “Kosovo-Serbia: A Different Approach” is trying to bring scholars from the two countries together to challenge preconceived notions, confront historical revisionism and propose some common narratives. 

The book was published by the Musine Kokolari Institute for Social Policy in Prishtina and the Institute for Philosophy and Social Theory in Belgrade. It proposes progressive perspectives on pressing social, economic and ecological questions with the aim of showing similarities between Serbs and Albanians through shared contemporary struggles and concerns.

Two of the publication’s main initiators discuss the book and the new frameworks for talking about Kosovo and Serbia relations.

Visar Ymeri is an activist, analyst and politician who served as the deputy leader of the Social Democratic Party of Kosovo. He served as the leader of Vetëvendosje between 2015 and 2018. Now he runs the Musine Kokolari Institute for Social Policy, a think tank promoting social democratic values in Kosovo.

Aleksandar Pavlović is a senior researcher at the Institute for Philosophy and Social Theory, University of Belgrade. His main research interests are cultural history of the Balkans, Serbian and Balkan oral and written tradition, Serbian-Albanian relations and traditional Balkan society.

Other Talking Points is produced by Besa Luci, Aulonë Kadriu and Gentiana Paçarizi.

Music and sound mix by PUG musik.

This episode was produced with the financial support of the National Endowment for Democracy.