Disclaimer: though the publication has been fully completed, officially it will be published in May 2017, as is presented on the publisher's web site: http://www.cambridge.org/gb/academic/subjects/politics-international-relations/russian-and-east-european-government-politics-and-policy/building-democracy-yugoslav-successor-states-accomplishments-setbacks-and-challenges-1990?format=HB The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) was created in the wave of post-Cold War transitional justice discourses. The underlying presumption in otherwise heterogeneous transitional justice literature maintains that establishing, disclosing, and acknowledging past crimes delegitimizes the past regime and reaffirms the rule of law, which is deemed crucial for rebuilding social cohesion and strengthening democratic values. The relation between the ICTY and democratization of the region have remained locked within a paradox – it was expected to change the minds and hearts of the local population, but, by the very nature of its activity, the Tribunal was condemned to achieve unpopularity in the region. These limitations were successfully countered in the first half of Tribunal’s activity through intensive leaning on a conditionality policy based on the desire of post-Yugoslav states to integrate in Western political structures. During the second decade, however, attempts to improve the image and stature of the Tribunal mostly crumbled in the face of various inconsistencies, diminishing its transformative potentials.
When we talk about academic mobility, we usually talk about those who are leaving the domestic academic community, and much less about those who are coming into it from abroad, or about academic mobility as a form of international scientific exchange. Public and media discourses on academic mobility in Slovenia are dominated by the conception of »brain drain«, particularly since the outburst of economic crisis. Framed as a tragic fact, this phrase overshadows an entire range of other issues that academic mobility raises in the careers and lives of academics, especially in early stages of their careers. On the basis of an analysis of dominant discourses and ongoing public debates, as well as the comparative analysis conducted within the GARCIA project, this chapter offers reflections on structural factors that condition advantages and disadvantages of mobility for academics in early stages of their careers. In this context, the chapter especially examines the construct of »national science« and structural self-reproduction of the academic community (so called »academic inbreeding«) in Slovenia. Within the construct of »national science«, Slovenian academia is perceived as supposed to be serving the development of Slovene language and building national identity. Hence, language serves not only as a mechanism of communication, but also as a mechanism of selection and »gatekeeping« in hiring academic staff. What further makes Slovenian academia a closed system is the mechanism of recruitment, which is based on informal personal connections and record of previous cooperation between the candidate and the hiring institution. In such a system, foreign academics and foreign-educated academics of Slovenian origin are discriminated against and/or prevented from entering the Slovenian academic community.
COBISS.SI-ID: 40908333