Identifying Counterhegemonic Spaces: Kosovo and EU-Enlargement

Abstract: In everyday life, imposing your will on your neighbour is likely to turn out counterproductive for your mutual relationship in the long term. Yet, the EU’s Enlargement-policy is commonly perceived as embedded with a spirit of policy imposition. While this is commonly perceived as a by-product of the EU’s power vis-à-vis pre-accession countries, few scholars have studied the implications of such imposition in its pre-accession contexts. This thesis aims to study such implications by drawing on Laclau and Mouffe’s discourse theoretical approach (1985). It therefore asks, how can we identify spaces in which counterhegemonic discourses emerge? In answering this, it applies a multi-method case study of Kosovo’s pre-accession context and conceives of Enlargement as a hegemonic discourse. It argues that counterhegemonic spaces can be identified by studying the undecidability of Enlargement’s discursive structure. It finds that Kosovans are subject to a plethora of hegemonic narratives, which simultaneously possess the potential for counterhegemonic disarticulations. From this perspective, events such as the general election in 2019 in Kosovo can be understood as a counterhegemonic moment. In developing its discourse theoretical approach, it contributes to poststructuralist IR and European Integration Studies by developing our understandings of the interplay between hegemonic and counterhegemonic discourses.