State Borders, Symbolic Boundaries and Contested Geographical Space: Citizenship Struggles in Kosovo

Space, both in its physical and symbolic definition, has traditionally been a central element of state and nation. Therefore, the concept of national citizenship merges space, nation and state through the dual capacity to include or exclude individuals. While looking at the process of symbolic modification of territory in Kosovo during the last twenty years, the paper argues that the symbolic changes and landscape modifications represent deliberate attempts of both Serb and Albanian elites for symbolic control over their perceived national territory and (re)definition of hierarchical citizenship. The paper looks at the construction and replacement of identity markers and symbols of territory – flags, sacred national sites, monuments, cultural objects, street names and signs – in Kosovo in the context of symbolic exclusion of individuals or particular groups from a political and geographic space.