Transformation of Cultural Identities in Contemporary Serbia and the European Union

Starting from relationship between cultural perception of the European Union and contemporary cultural connotations of the concept “national”, as these are applied to identity, the proposed research aims to present forms and ways of, as well as reasons for the transformation of cultural identities in contemporary Serbia under socio-cultural conditions of what is assumed to be the last phase of the transition process. The research is designed as empirical and theoretical: as both fieldwork-based and grounded in the analysis of theoretical discourses and paradigms pertinent to construction, reconstruction and deconstruction of cultural identities in contemporary Serbia. Plurality of cultural identities and freedom to express them publicly are key features of a democratic society, yet the existence of discourse and practice configured so as to enhance transformability of cultural identities represents the real indicator of how democratic one community is. Applying ethnological and anthropological research in order to verify the existence of such a nature of cultural identities in contemporary Serbia, that is the existence of those characteristics of the social and cultural context that are conducive to plurality and transformability of cultural identities should contribute to a deeper understanding of causes and factors of completing the socio-cultural transformation of our society into a modern, democratically consolidated, market-oriented yet socially responsible society.