Cultural Identity Politics in the (Post-)Transitional Societies

Cultural Identity Politics in the (Post-)Transitional Societies
in Croatia is gradually entering the post-transition phase. Changes that have occurred
include broader communication with global cultural trends, and these are visible in
the alterations of modes of cultural consumption as well as cultural production. New
cultural spaces are being created that include the formation of new identitarian models.
We are slowly shifting from the homogeneous model of cultural identity that was linked
to national culture, towards models that put individual choices at the centre and that
are oriented towards new cultures. In addition, new identitarian models are open to
a multiplicity of value orientations as well as a plurality of choices inside one’s own
culture. New information and communication technologies (ICTs) support some of
these changes and developments in the diversification of models of cultural production,
distribution and consumption.
In Southeastern Europe, which Croatia is part of, the beginning of cultural
industrialization was evident in the socialist period, but its true growth began with the
fall of socialism and with the development of the different capitalisms in these countries.
Industrialization of the cultural field implied a reshaping of the models of production,
distribution and consumption. These changes included the redefinition of cultural
institutions, the formation of a new cultural infrastructure, the transformation of
cultural work (for example, changes in the work rights and obligations, work processes,
etc.) and in the incorporation of Croatian culture in global cultural flows. Thus, we can
speak about the end of the transition processes in Croatia (Tomić-Koludrović and Petrić,
2007: 883; Švob-Đokić, 2008: 10), and about the gradual move to a post-transition
phase at the economic, political and cultural level.
When discussing the cultural field, there are still unfinished transition processes
that are a result of continuity with the former system. These relate to problems in the
cultural infrastructure, cultural legislation, models of cultural financing and the general
approach towards culture. As stressed by Tomić-Koludrović and Petrić (2007: 883),
“Continuity with the former period is shown in such a way that financing of culture is
viewed as ‘consumption’ and not as investment in production resources, as is the case
with societies where processes of postindustrial modernization are underway”. 2 In this
context one can speak of Croatian society as a “mixed society” (Tomić-Koludrović and
Petrić, 2005), where the processes of first and second modernity are intertwined.
But what could be more adequate in this context is the notion that implies, as Nederveen
Pieterse (2009) stresses that different versions of hybrid combinations of premodern and
modern elements still coexist in a certain society. This leads us to a multilinear perspective
towards the concept of multiple modernities, where all “real existing modernities” are
mixed and layered, not only in the “rest of the world” but in the “West” as well. They
entail mixed social formations, where styles and customs of different cultures from
past and present times are imported. Furthermore, “layered” here implies that different
2
Translation from Croatian to English J. P.
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