This Monday, on October 7th, we held a first in a series of four webinars “From Transition to Transformation – Intergenerational Shifts in Shaping the Balkans” facilitated by Mirza Buljubašić, PhD!
The webinar attracted significant interest, drawing around 20 participants joining via Zoom from Croatia, Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Albania, France, and North Macedonia. During the webinar, Mirza presented an overview of the transitional challenges in all ex-Yugoslav countries including Albania. He also emphasized the essential role of youth activists, politicians and young professionals in guiding their countries out of transitional and into the transformational phase. The participants also had an opportunity to ask questions and discuss some related topics with Mirza during an interactive and interesting Q&A session.
During the lecture, Mirza talked about navigating a challenging socio-political transitional period – recovery from war crimes and the fall of communist regimes in the Western Balkans. Mirza discussed how the legacy of the past, including collective memory, transitional justice, and remnants of authoritarian regimes, still influences today’s youth and societies at large.
Additionally, we explored how youth are using digital platforms and activism to foster regional cooperation and demand greater accountability from institutions. The focus of this part of the webinar was on young people and their efforts to challenge ethnic divisions, fight corruption, and deal with economic instability. Mirza explored how young generations are more often taking an active role in breaking cycles of division and trauma, while shaping new political and social reality. Finally, he emphasized the importance of youth’s role in changing the narrative and leading the region towards a better future, leaving behind division and stagnation.
Following Mirza’s engaging lecture, participants delved into thought-provoking questions that further widened their understanding of the transitional challenges within the region but also how we, the youth, can overcome them. We also further discussed the importance of youth’s work and activism, how we should and can organize around common goals and advocate for progressive policies. One such initiative we discussed at the end of the webinar was our PYN member Democratic Youth’s initiative “I vote at 16!” [Glasam sa 16!] about which you can read more about here.
We express our appreciation to Mirza Buljubašić for generously sharing his invaluable insights from his field and academic research with our PYN members, activists, and all other interested participants. We also deeply appreciate everyone’s active participation in this stimulating webinar.
We eagerly anticipate reconnecting with you all in our upcoming regional coffee webinar session on October 21st at 18:00 when we will talk with Natalia Zwarts about “Cybersecurity decisions: How to stay informed and not get paranoid? Future measures for defending cyberspace”! You can already submit your early bird registration for Natalia’s lecture here and read more about our upcoming webinars here.
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