Post-socialist identity, territoriality and European integration: Serbia’s return to Europe after Milošević

This article explores the spatiality of post-Miloscaronevicacute Serbian identity in the context of European integration. The fall of the Miloscaronevicacute regime has prompted Serbiarsquos political rehabilitation in Europe, paralleled by its pursuit of European integration. The article posits that European integration of post-socialist newcomers is a two-sided spatial process. It includes a rediscovery and reassertion of the European identity as a form of symbolic spatial repositioning in Europe and a transformation of state territoriality as European integration relaxes the statersquos absolute control over territory. The article shows that a symbolic Europeanisation of Serbian identity, underpinned by contested meanings of Europe, has not led to substantial transformation of state territoriality. Furthermore, European integration has been used as a justification for the pursuit of deeply territorial national politics, hindering the transition from modern to post-modern state territoriality.