Beyond Multiculturalism: Minority Intellectuals in the Postsocialist Predicament of Southeast Europe

In light of the apparent failure of multicultural policy strategies concerning the recognition and empowerment of minority groups, this chapter poses a challenge to the essentialist concept of “subaltern” and “community” in Marxist scholarship. Through Antonio Gramsci’s slippery terminology related to the “theory of hegemony”, this chapter (re-)examines the role of intellectuals within subaltern communities and their (lack of) mobilization in postsocialist Southeast Europe. In particular, this chapter aims to unravel the subtle and implicit mechanisms through which liberal multicultural policies tend deliberately to institutionalize intrasociety relations and thereby reinforce societal roles of subordination for specific segments of society. Following Gramsci’s philosophy of praxis as an alternative path to Marx’s, the author concludes by pointing out how intellectuals’ “contradictory consciousness”, which is composed of apathy, sometimes resistance, or even resignation, is the main barrier to a real mobilization of subalterns.