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The European Union and everyday statebuilding in Kosovo

Ilazi, Ramadan orcid logoORCID: 0000-0003-2361-5561 (2021) The European Union and everyday statebuilding in Kosovo. PhD thesis, Dublin City University.

Abstract
This thesis examines the European Union’s everyday statebuilding practices in Kosovo. Although there is an ample research on the EU’s work in Kosovo, the existing accounts have primarily focused on the performance of institutions and instruments of the EU, such as conditionality in the accession process, and do not sufficiently engage with the micro politics and the everyday dynamics that foreground the agency in the statebuilding process. The thesis focuses on examining the everyday practices and various actors that enable the EU to assert its power and influence over domestic decision-making process in rule of law and public administration, and conflict mediation. Drawing mostly on extensive field research and participant observation in Kosovo, this thesis expands our understanding of the EU’s statebuilding practices and its effectiveness. Contrary to the mainstream accounts on the EU, this thesis finds that the EU’s statebuilding capacity in the field is shaped by prudent conduct, improvisation, and pragmatic navigation attuned more to serve the immediate interests of EU’s actors rather than those of beneficiary communities. The very process of statebuilding is organized around creating a role for a protracted and embedded involvement of the EU rather than empowering local institutions and enabling local ownership over the statebuilding process. The thesis finds that what constitutes of the EU in everyday encounters is different from the perceived image of the EU as a normatively and organizationally consistent actor. What constitutes the EU to the local actors are the subcontracted experts from technical assistance projects, who are the norm entrepreneurs, but who lack proper supervision by the EU, and more than often improvise their input, such as best practices from member States or norm to solve complex local challenges. Ultimately, intermeshing of political and technocratic actors among the EU enables the organization to exert power, but also exposes many flaws which tend to undermine its image and long term impact. Thus, this empirical account of everyday statebuilding approaches of the EU makes an important contribution to the overall studies of the EU as an emerging global actor.
Metadata
Item Type:Thesis (PhD)
Date of Award:November 2021
Refereed:No
Supervisor(s):Doyle, John and Visoka, Gezim
Uncontrolled Keywords:Kosovo; European Union; statebuilding; state recognition; everyday practices
Subjects:Social Sciences > International relations
Social Sciences > Political science
Social Sciences > Public administration
DCU Faculties and Centres:DCU Faculties and Schools > Faculty of Humanities and Social Science > School of Law and Government
Research Institutes and Centres > Institute for International Conflict Resolution and Reconstruction
Use License:This item is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License. View License
Funders:Dublin City University
ID Code:25678
Deposited On:29 Oct 2021 16:01 by John Doyle . Last Modified 29 Oct 2021 16:01
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