Written from the perspectives of regional and international participants, this book explores the causes and consequences of chronic conflicts in the Balkans. Assessing the likelihood of a region-wide conflagration, the contributors examine the ongoing carnage in Bosnia, the looming crisis over Kosovo, the dispute between Greece and Macedonia over t

'Imagining the Balkans' examines how an innocent geographic appellation was transformed into a powerful and widespread pejorative designation. In a new afterword, Maria Todorova discusses the reaction to her dubbing of the term Balkanism and recent events in the Balkans.

Examines the origins of political violence in the Balkans since the 19th century, while treating the region as an integral part of modern European history, reminding us that political violence and ethnic cleansing are hardly unique to this region.

Eastern Europe addresses the emergence of uncertain pluralism in the region following the disintegration of the communist regimes in 1989. Taking a broad historical approach, the volume considers issues and challenges that have marked Eastern Europe from 1939 through World War II and the era of socialism, up to the present. Eight comprehensive country studies are augmented by detailed assessments of economic developments, security issues, religious currents, cultural policies, and gender relations in the region.

The increasing amount of user-generated content available on social media platforms requires new methods to find, evaluate, and to compare. To this day, existing ranking approaches to user-generated content do not allow for evaluation across platforms by exploiting its metadata. User-generated content, such as blog postings, forum discussions, shared videos etc. does however contain information that can be used for its evaluation independent of specific search interests. Claudia Wyrwoll presents a query- and language-independent ranking approach that allows for global evaluation of user-generated content across different platforms. Building on an insightful introduction into social media fundamentals, she proposes new models describing phenomena associated with social media, laying the foundation for further research and development.

Includes statistics.

The first systematic analysis of socioeconomic violence in war and its implications for post-war justice processes. This book will appeal to students and researchers interested in international interventions in post-conflict countries, transitional justice, and how countries deal with the legacies of past violence.