Papers by Klejd Kellici
Ab imperio, 2018
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
Political Studies Review, May 1, 2016
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
SSRN Electronic Journal, 2021
Shqiptarja e Re (the New Albanian Woman) was the official organ of the B.G.Sh. (Women’s Union of ... more Shqiptarja e Re (the New Albanian Woman) was the official organ of the B.G.Sh. (Women’s Union of Albania). Its activity spanned from 1943 to 1991, accompanying the inception, consolidation and the downfall of the communist regime in Albania. The magazine started as an imitation of women’s magazines in the Soviet Union and later developed its own identity, reflecting the requirements and problems of building socialism in Albania. Shqiptarja e re was designed to be a propaganda and pedagogical tool of the regime. This article seeks to explore how the magazine helped to shape and construct the ‘new socialist woman’ and to convey to women their position in the state, family, and work, all of which remained dominant themes covered by the magazine.
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
SEEU Review, 2017
The main research question for this paper is: Are there radical left wing movements in Albania an... more The main research question for this paper is: Are there radical left wing movements in Albania and Kosovo and what are their main traits? Through answering this question, we will explore the development (or lack thereof) of radical left wing movements. With radical left we intend movements that reject the underlying socio-economic structure of contemporary capitalism and its values and practices without opposing democracy. Through a thorough desk research and several interviews with experts and activists both in Albania and Kosovo, we look at the two case Political Opportunity Structures to study the emergence, the strategies, success or failures of the radical left. In Albania the radical left has been in decline since 1992, with only a recent revival from 2009 on. In Kosovo, the Lëvizja Vetëvendojse! (Self-Determination Movement), a civil movement transformed in a party, has succeeded in imposing its left agenda. Both cases employ a new rhetoric unrelated to the past communist reg...
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
PAMIĘĆ i SPRAWIEDLIWOŚĆ, 2023
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
Political Studies Review, 2013
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
Ex Novo, Dec 31, 2016
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
AP: Online Journal in Public Archaeology, 2017
The communist regime that governed Albania between 1944 and 1991 has left considerable architectu... more The communist regime that governed Albania between 1944 and 1991 has left considerable architectural remains. These however, are rapidly dissapearing, as a result of recent development. This paper explores the perception of the monumental heritage of the socialist regime in current day Albania. In our view, concepts of “unwanted” or “difficult” heritage used in the past to make sense of the heritage of socialist dictatorships, are not able to fully account for the specificities of the Albanian case as aspects other than trauma and pain need to be considered.The perception of the heritage from Albania’s communist past is investigated both through a theoretical discussion, which addresses the relationship between “unwanted heritage” and phenomena of nostalgia for certain aspects of life during communism, as well as through a questionnaire targeted at a sample of the population of the capital city Tirana. As far as this last aspect is concerned, our focus has been on the most iconic co...
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
History of Communism in Europe, 2016
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
To the surprise of both academics and policy-makers, religion has not been relegated entirely to ... more To the surprise of both academics and policy-makers, religion has not been relegated entirely to the private sphere; quite the contrary. Over the last few decades, religion has begun to play a significant role in public affairs and, in many cases, directly in political systems. This edited volume analyses in detail how religion and religious precepts inform the ideology, strategies and electoral behaviour of political parties. Working with an original and innovative typology of religiously oriented political parties, the book examines cases from different regions of the world and different religious traditions to highlight the significance of religion for party politics. This interest for religiously oriented parties is combined with an interest in processes of democratic change and democratic consolidation. Political parties are central to the success of processes of democratization while religion is seen in many circles as an element that prevents such success because it is perceived to be a polarising factor detrimental to the consensus necessary to build a liberal-democratic system. Through the different case-studies presented here, a much more complex picture emerges, where religiously oriented political parties perform very different and often contradicting roles with respect to democratic change.
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
Politikon, 2012
ambiguous, to the detriment of policy coherence and consistency. A subsequent memorandum of under... more ambiguous, to the detriment of policy coherence and consistency. A subsequent memorandum of understanding between the AU and RECs has eased some of the problems of coordination, but it will take a long time before there is clarity about the future of the AEC. Gaddafi played a domineering and, some say, a ‘spoiler’ role in the formation of the AU. His recent demise is a momentous event that may shape the fortunes of the AU for many years to come. More uncertain is the outlook for the plans that Gaddafi proposed between 2005 and 2009 to transform the AU into an authority with more coordinative powers in most areas of competence. Although most African countries resisted these entreaties, Gaddafi had a large following across Africa, particularly among small states which he supported financially. Whether these states will continue to pursue this agenda is not currently clear. Equally uncertain is whether the new leaders in Tripoli will continue to play a major role in Africa’s international relations given the AU’s belated recognition of the government, which has also criticised Gaddafi’s Africa policy. Yet, whatever the trajectory that emerges in Libya and North Africa as a whole, things have changed irrevocably. Promoting the African Union gives a picture of an important chapter in Africa’s international relations that is only now beginning to unfold as we witness the changes in North Africa. This book contributes to a fuller understanding of the actors, processes and outcomes of multilateral institution-building in Africa over the past 20 years and should be read by all who are interested in this period.
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
Journal of Palestine Studies, 2021
Abstract This article examines Communist Albania’s support for the Palestinian cause and the rela... more Abstract This article examines Communist Albania’s support for the Palestinian cause and the relationships Tirana cultivated with the various groups comprising the Palestinian national movement. It explores the latter’s motivation for cultivating relations with Albania, a tiny Communist country that refused the logic of the bipolar world, both in its alliance with China and, later, through its disengagement from the East-West conflict and retreat into self-imposed isolationism. The article shows that, following Albania’s break with the Soviet bloc in the 1970s, the Palestine Liberation Organization, and specifically Fatah, was a more natural and logical choice for Tirana’s support than other, more self-avowedly left-wing Palestinian organizations. This study is based on primary sources from the archives of the Albanian foreign affairs ministry and the Party of Labour of Albania, as well as secondary sources such as accounts by members of the Albanian military who trained Fatah guerrilla fighters.
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
Journal of Palestine Studies, 2021
This article examines Communist Albania's support for the Palestinian cause and the relationships... more This article examines Communist Albania's support for the Palestinian cause and the relationships Tirana cultivated with the various groups comprising the Palestinian national movement. It explores the latter's motivation for cultivating relations with Albania, a tiny Communist country that refused the logic of the bipolar world, both in its alliance with China and, later, through its disengagement from the East-West conflict and retreat into self-imposed isolationism. The article shows that, following Albania's break with the Soviet bloc in the 1970s, the Palestine Liberation Organization, and specifically Fatah, was a more natural and logical choice for Tirana's support than other, more self-avowedly left-wing Palestinian organizations. This study is based on primary sources from the archives of the Albanian foreign affairs ministry and the Party of Labour of Albania, as well as secondary sources such as accounts by members of the Albanian military who trained Fatah guerrilla fighters.
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
Środowisko studenckie w krajach bloku sowieckiego , 2020
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
History of Communism in Europe, 2016
During Socialism, the “women’s issue” was among the key state policies in
Albania. The emancipat... more During Socialism, the “women’s issue” was among the key state policies in
Albania. The emancipation issue followed a pattern similar to other socialist countries,
called the “women’s emancipation model”. It was part both of the state rhetoric and the
general need to include women in the “socialist transformative processes”. This involved policies that supported women’s participation in the productive labour force, as well as the introduction of new laws that promoted the equality between men and
women.
A reconfiguration of gender roles and the gender division of tasks occurred during socialism. In Albania, this process had two distinct phases. From 1944 onward women’s emancipation was thought of in terms of their participation as an additional force in the post-war reconstruction effort, even though sporadic and aligned with the primary political needs of the regime. The second phase occurred during the ‘60s following the Party’s directive “For the complete emancipation of women” (1967). This phase was considered strategic as it coincided with the efforts to industrialize the country and to eventually fully centralize the control over the territory.
This paper aims to investigate the entanglements between gender propaganda and gender practices. For this purpose, we analyze various party speeches and policies as well as examples of “heroines” and propaganda movies. A thorough analysis of State Archives and other documents was undertaken to substantiate this investigation.
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
More than a quarter of a century after the fall of the eastern bloc (broadly intended), former co... more More than a quarter of a century after the fall of the eastern bloc (broadly intended), former communist countries have dramatically changed. Yet the memory of the recent past is sometimes perceived as being accompanied by a considerable sense of unease. This process is mirrored clearly in the way some countries have dealt with the physical remains of the regime. This paper will focus on a case study from contemporary Albania and represents one of the first attempts at addressing the social significance of the remnants of the recent communist past in this country. It is undertaken not only through a theoretical and historical investigation, but also via a direct survey of the public (in this case a sample of citizens of the capital city Tirana). Our results suggest that, contrary to our initial assumptions, there is a considerable widely shared interest in the material remnants of the regime and that its cultural heritage its cultural heritage still needs to be explained. Framing the problem More than a quarter of a century has passed since the fall of the Berlin Wall and the opening of Eastern Europe. All of the former eastern bloc countries have followed the path of liberalisation and regime change. In the face of these changes, new identity perspectives were opened both internally and externally. While externally it was implied that almost all Eastern Europe countries would be able to join the international structures of the west (i.e. NATO or European Union), internally identity involved coping with the communist past and its vision of the future. The external dimension was relatively easy to deal with, in the short-term; the internal debate on identity however , was far more intense. Both dimensions nonetheless implied the idea of identity building or rediscovering. All former communist countries in Central and Eastern Europe have tried to build a sense of national memory, saving certain aspects of it and often neglecting others, normally the most recent ones. Defining what was to be remembered and what was to be left to oblivion is, just like defining a national identity, the product of a complex convergence of socio-political, economic and cultural factors. While the nationalist aspects embedded in urban architecture (in features like memorials, monuments celebrating historical figures and so on) were more easily incorporated in the new urban narratives of the post-communist state, this was not the case for features more deeply imbued with the ideology of dictatorship. The end of the Cold War put a question mark over the survival not only of communist buildings, but also of the very idea of the city that had emerged as a result of the process of social engineering promoted by the regimes (Bater 1980).
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
The communist regime that governed Albania between 1944 and 1991 has left considerable architectu... more The communist regime that governed Albania between 1944 and 1991 has left considerable architectural remains. These however are rapidly dissapearing, as a result of recent development. This paper explores the perception of the monumental heritage of the socialist regime in current day Albania. In our view, concepts of “unwanted” or “difficult” heritage used in the past to make sense of the heritage of socialist dictatorships, are not able to fully account for the specificities of the Albanian case as aspects other than trauma and pain need to be considered.
The perception of the heritage from Albania’s communist past is investigated both through a theoretical discussion, which addresses the relationship between “unwanted heritage” and phenomena of nostalgia for certain aspects of life during communism, as well as through a questionnaire targeted at a sample of the population of the capital city Tirana. As far as this last aspect is concerned, our focus has been on the most iconic communist monument in Tirana, the Pyramid, the former museum dedicated to the dictator Enver Hoxha.
In the last part of the paper, we try to make sense of the trends that emerged through the analysis of quantitative data, addressing the role of work and related forms of memory in forging the relationship between Albanians and the material remains of their recent past.
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
Book Reviews by Klejd Kellici
Andrea Graziosi and Frank E. Sysyn (Eds.), Communism and Hunger: The Ukrainian, Chinese, Kazakh, and Soviet Famines in Comparative Perspective (Edmonton and Toronto: CIUS Press, 2016). 158 pp. , 2018
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
Uploads
Papers by Klejd Kellici
Albania. The emancipation issue followed a pattern similar to other socialist countries,
called the “women’s emancipation model”. It was part both of the state rhetoric and the
general need to include women in the “socialist transformative processes”. This involved policies that supported women’s participation in the productive labour force, as well as the introduction of new laws that promoted the equality between men and
women.
A reconfiguration of gender roles and the gender division of tasks occurred during socialism. In Albania, this process had two distinct phases. From 1944 onward women’s emancipation was thought of in terms of their participation as an additional force in the post-war reconstruction effort, even though sporadic and aligned with the primary political needs of the regime. The second phase occurred during the ‘60s following the Party’s directive “For the complete emancipation of women” (1967). This phase was considered strategic as it coincided with the efforts to industrialize the country and to eventually fully centralize the control over the territory.
This paper aims to investigate the entanglements between gender propaganda and gender practices. For this purpose, we analyze various party speeches and policies as well as examples of “heroines” and propaganda movies. A thorough analysis of State Archives and other documents was undertaken to substantiate this investigation.
The perception of the heritage from Albania’s communist past is investigated both through a theoretical discussion, which addresses the relationship between “unwanted heritage” and phenomena of nostalgia for certain aspects of life during communism, as well as through a questionnaire targeted at a sample of the population of the capital city Tirana. As far as this last aspect is concerned, our focus has been on the most iconic communist monument in Tirana, the Pyramid, the former museum dedicated to the dictator Enver Hoxha.
In the last part of the paper, we try to make sense of the trends that emerged through the analysis of quantitative data, addressing the role of work and related forms of memory in forging the relationship between Albanians and the material remains of their recent past.
Book Reviews by Klejd Kellici
Albania. The emancipation issue followed a pattern similar to other socialist countries,
called the “women’s emancipation model”. It was part both of the state rhetoric and the
general need to include women in the “socialist transformative processes”. This involved policies that supported women’s participation in the productive labour force, as well as the introduction of new laws that promoted the equality between men and
women.
A reconfiguration of gender roles and the gender division of tasks occurred during socialism. In Albania, this process had two distinct phases. From 1944 onward women’s emancipation was thought of in terms of their participation as an additional force in the post-war reconstruction effort, even though sporadic and aligned with the primary political needs of the regime. The second phase occurred during the ‘60s following the Party’s directive “For the complete emancipation of women” (1967). This phase was considered strategic as it coincided with the efforts to industrialize the country and to eventually fully centralize the control over the territory.
This paper aims to investigate the entanglements between gender propaganda and gender practices. For this purpose, we analyze various party speeches and policies as well as examples of “heroines” and propaganda movies. A thorough analysis of State Archives and other documents was undertaken to substantiate this investigation.
The perception of the heritage from Albania’s communist past is investigated both through a theoretical discussion, which addresses the relationship between “unwanted heritage” and phenomena of nostalgia for certain aspects of life during communism, as well as through a questionnaire targeted at a sample of the population of the capital city Tirana. As far as this last aspect is concerned, our focus has been on the most iconic communist monument in Tirana, the Pyramid, the former museum dedicated to the dictator Enver Hoxha.
In the last part of the paper, we try to make sense of the trends that emerged through the analysis of quantitative data, addressing the role of work and related forms of memory in forging the relationship between Albanians and the material remains of their recent past.