Staff

Sinisa Malesevic

Senior Lecturer

PhD (Sociology) University College Cork
MA (Sociology and Politics) Central European University (Prague) and Lancaster University
BA (Sociology) University of Zagreb

Office: 319 Aras Moyola
Telephone: 353 (0)91 493653
Email: sinisa.malesevicnuigalway.ie

Member of the Power, Conflict and Ideologies Research Cluster

Profile

Dr. Sinisa Malesevic, MRIA, is a political sociologist with a research interest in the comparative-historical and theoretical study of ethnicity and nationalism, ideology, war, violence as well as in sociological theory. He is author of five and editor of four books, numerous book chapters and his work has appeared in the following international peer reviewed journals: Ethnic and Racial Studies, Nations and Nationalism, European Journal of Social Theory, Critical Sociology, Government and Opposition, Nationalism and Ethnic Politics, International Political Sociology, Journal of Language and Politics, East European Quarterly, Journal of Power, Development in Practice and Europa Ethnica. Previously he was a research fellow in the Institute for International Relations (Zagreb) and the Centre for the Study of Nationalism (Prague). He also held visiting research fellowships in the Institute for Human Sciences (Vienna) and the London School of Economics. In March 2010 he was elected as a Member of the Royal Irish Academy.

Teaching

Political Sociology, Sociology of Ethnicity and Nationalism, Sociology of War, Social and Political Theory

Research Interests

Theoretical and comparative study of ethnicity and nationalism; the sociology of war and violence, theories of ideology; sociological theory, historical sociology, and the political sociology of post-communism. 

Selected Publications

S. Malesevic (2012) Nation-States and Nationalisms. Cambridge: Polity Press (forthcoming).

S. Malesevic (2011) The Chimera of National Identity. Nations and Nationalism 17 (1) (in press)

S. Malesevic (2011) Nationalism, War and Social Cohesion. Ethnic and Racial Studies 34 (1): 142-161.

S. Malesevic (2010) The Sociology of War and Violence. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Hb & Pb pp. 364 ( Croatian translation published in 2011 with Jesenski & Turk, Zagreb; Serbian translation published in 2011 with Mediterran Publishing, Novi Sad)

This book focuses on the historical and contemporary impact of coercion and warfare on the transformation of social life and vice versa. Although collective violence and war have shaped much of recorded human history the mainstream sociology remains ignorant of war. In contrast this book brings the study of organized violence to the fore by providing a wide ranging sociological analysis that aims to link the classical and contemporary theoretical contributions with the specific historical and geographical contexts. It covers such diverse topics as violence before modernity, warfare in modern age, nationalism and war, war propaganda, battlefield solidarity, war and social stratification, gender and organized violence and the new wars debate.

S. Malesevic (2011) Ethnicity in Time and Space: A Conceptual Analysis. Critical Sociology 37 (1) 67-82.

This paper critically engages with the two dominant paradigms in the study of ethnicity: the temporal and the spatial. The author identifies the principal epistemological weaknesses of both perspectives and articulates an alternative understanding that conceptualises ethnicity as a social situation.  

S. Malesevic and N. O’Dochartaigh (2011) Secession and Political Violence. In: A. Pavkovic and P. Radan (eds.) Research Companion on Secession. Aldershot: Ashgate. (in press)

S. Malesevic and J.A. Hall (2011) The Political Sociology of Power. In M. Haugaard and K. Ryan (eds.) Power: The State of the Art. Leverkusen: IPSA and Budrich Publishers (in press)

S. Malesevic (2011) ’Ideology’ in K. Dowding (ed.) Encyclopeadia of Power. London: Sage (in press)

S. Malesevic (2010) How Pacifist were the Founding Fathers?: War and Violence in Classical Sociology. European Journal of Social Theory. 13(2): 193-212.

The paper explores the ways war and organised violence were analysed in the works of classical sociologists. It argues that contrary to the widely held view many classics were preoccupied with these topics and have devised complex concepts and models to study war and violence. In fact most of the classical social thought was sympathetic to the ’militarist’ understanding of social life.

S. Malesevic (2009). Sociologija Ethniciteta, (Belgrade: Fabrika Knjiga), a Serbian translation of The Sociology of Ethnicity (London: Sage, 2004).

In this thoughtful and accessible text, Malesevic assesses the explanatory strength of a range of sociological theories in understanding ethnicity and ethnic conflict. While acknowledging that there is no master key or blue-print to deal with each and every case of interethnic group relations, this book develops the best strategy to bridge epistemological and policy requirements for interethnic group relations.

S. Malesevic (2009) Collective Violence and Power. In S. Clegg and M. Haugaard (eds.) Sage Handbook of Power. London: Sage. pp. 274-290.

This paper explores the contentious social relationships between coercion, power and ideology. The central focus is on this paradoxical state of high modernity which is normatively built on the principles that glorify reason and despise violence wile at the same time witnessing more bloodshed than any previous historical era.

S. Malesevic (2008) The Sociology of New Wars?: Assessing the Causes and Objectives of Contemporary Violent Conflicts. International Political Sociology 2(2): 97-112.

This paper provides a critical analysis of the sociological accounts of the new war paradigm. The author argues that despite the development of elaborate models, the sociology of contemporary warfare fails to convince. Rather than witnessing a dramatic shift in its causes and objectives of contemporary violent conflict, one encounters a significant transformation in the social and historical context in which these wars are waged. 

S. Malesevic and M. Haugaard (eds). (2007). Ernest Gellner and Contemporary Social Thought. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Ernest Gellner was a unique scholar whose work covered areas as diverse as social anthropology, analytical philosophy, the sociology of the Islamic world, nationalism, psychoanalysis, East European transformations and kinship structures. Despite this diversity, there is an exceptional degree of unity and coherence in Gellner’s work with his distinctly modernist, rationalist and liberal world-view evident in everything he wrote. His central problematic remains constant: understanding how the modern world came into being and to what extent it is unique relative to all other social forms. Ten years after his death, this book brings together leading social theorists to evaluate the significance of Gellner’s legacy and to re-examine his central concerns. It corrects many misunderstandings and critically engages with Gellner’s legacy to provide a cutting edge contribution to understanding our contemporary post-9/11, global, late modern, social condition.

S. Malesevic and G. Uzelac (2007) A Nation-state without the Nation?: The trajectories of nation-formation in Montenegro, Nations and Nationalism 13(4): 695-716.

S. Malesevic (2006) Identity as Ideology: Understanding Ethnicity and Nationalism (New York: Palgrave Macmillan).

Modern human beings are socialized to take the existence of ethnic and national identities as given and largely unproblematic. Very few individuals would question the apparent normality of this division into nations and ethnic groups however, the intensity of this widespread feeling hides the degree of its historical novelty. This book explores the ideological and institutional underpinnings, as well as the political implications of this powerful modern belief system. This is achieved through subtle theoretical and thorough empirical analysis, both of which draw critically on the leading approaches in the field.

S. Malesevic J. Breuilly, D Cesarani, B Neuberger, M Mann (2006) 'Debate on Michael Mann's The Dark Side of Democracy: Explaining Ethnic Cleansing', Nations and Nationalism 12 (3) 389-411.

S. Malesevic (2004). The Sociology of Ethnicity. London: Sage.

In this thoughtful and accessible text, Malesevic assesses the explanatory strength of a range of sociological theories in understanding ethnicity and ethnic conflict. While acknowledging that there is no master key or blue-print to deal with each and every case of interethnic group relations, this book develops the best strategy to bridge epistemological and policy requirements for interethnic group relations.

S. Malesevic (2002). Ideology, Legitimacy and the New State: Yugoslavia, Serbia and Croatia. London: Frank Cass/Routledge. (Reprinted in 2008 by Routledge (revised Serbian translation published by Fabrika Knjiga, Belgrade 2004; Croatian translation published by Jesenski and Turk, Zagreb 2004).)

This is a comparative analysis of the dominant ideologies and modes of legitimization in communist Yugoslavia and post-Communist Serbia and Croatia. The aim of the book is to identify and explain dominant normative and operative ideologies and principal modes of legitimization in these three case studies. The book is based on the content analysis of manifestos of the ruling parties in post World War II Yugoslavia (League of Communists), post-Cold War Serbia (Socialist Party of Serbia) and Croatia (Croatian Democratic Union), as well as on the content analysis of the school textbooks and editorial of government-controlled newspapers published in the same period. By analyzing the way state apparatuses work, the author aims to demonstrate the crucial role that ideology plays in the underpinning of the identity transformation in these three societies. At the same time, an attempt is made to develop an adequate theoretical model of ideology and political legitimization that would not only help explain the extraordinary situation of these three cases but would also contribute to the general theory of ideology and legitimization.

S. Malesevic and Mark Haugaard (eds) (2002) Making Sense of Collectivigty: Ethnicity, Nationalism and Globalisation (Pluto Press).

We live in a rapidly changing world. The collapse of the Cold War, the development of new technologies and the globalisation of the world economy have all had a dramatic impact on societies across the globe. Migration, new types of wars and changing borders mean that even the stability and security of nation-states has become a thing of the past. New nationalisms, new social movements and the resurgence of identity politics all indicate that we are entering a new era where the very notion of collective identity -- through nation states or through transnational identity culture -- is challenged.This volume examines concepts of collective identity, how they are changing and what this means for our future. With contributions from distinguished sociologists including Jenkins, Eisenstadt, Rex, Bauman and Hall, it gives a radical new overview of collectivity theory -- a topic that lies at the heart of sociology, anthropology and political science.

>> For a full list of publications, click here.

Supervision of Research

MA

Hannagh McGinly – on the secondary school immigrants in the west of Ireland, (2005)

Emir Sito – on post-communism and globalisation in Bosnia (2004)

Martin Faherty – on privatisation of warfare in Iraq (2006)

Orla Jackson – on restorative justice and bullying in secondary schools (2007)

John Duffy – on LGB immigrants in Ireland (2007)

M.Litt.

Lisa Walsh – on the collective sacrifice in Irish nationalism and Islamic fundamentalism (2008)

Michael Doyle – on nationalism and European integration (2007)

Daniel Savery – on nationalism and liberalism (2007)

PhD

Kevin Ryan – on the narratives of social exclusion in Ireland (2005) (co-supervised)

Brendan Sweeney – on national myths in Sweden and Europe (2005) (co-supervised)

Stacey Furlong – on ideologies of neo-liberalism and Islamism (2008) (co-supervised)

Dumisani  Bhebhe – on State-Society relations and the Role of Military in Zimbabwe and South Africa (co-supervised) (2007)

Judith O’Connell – on banal nationalism and educational system in Ireland (2007)

Carol Staunton – on crimes against bodily integrity (genocide and rape) (2008)

Stefanie Dinkelbach – on national trauma in Germany (co-supervised with Film Studies) (2008)

Justin Frewen – on the concept of evil in political thought (2009)

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