Mimetismo di frontiera. Nazionalità e cittadinanza in Istria

This book is an original monographic work based on a three-years long fieldwork. It analyses the causes and the forms taken by the regional identity in the post-socialist trans-national region of Istria. The research aims at shedding light on the cultural, social, economic and political implications of the regional patterns of identity in Istria through the discussion of the concept of “istrianess” (istrijanstvo). Based on the elaboration of statistics, secondary sources and original semi-structured interviews with privileged witnesses, the goal of the book is to reconstruct and codify the sense of istrianess from the point of view of the people that actively participating in its cultural and political elaboration. As a result, the work put forward the original thesis that the sense of istrianess has to be found in the tense relations between national belonging and the establishment of a democratic national citizenship within he newly established Croatian state. The subordination of citizenship rights to a clear and exclusive national affiliation fueled insecurity and anxiety among the multinational dwellers of a frontier region like Istria. In the difficult post-war and post-socialist years, the local affiliation to an over-encompassing regional identity was felt as an alternative reasonable answer to the possible discriminations coming from the new state. This author has labeled this dynamic as “borderland” mimicry, meaning the territorial identification with a frontier land instead of a polity or an ethnic group with the aim to seek protection.[...]