Spectres of Kosovo: 20 Years of Liminality and Aporia

Using the concepts of spectres, liminality and aporia as conceptualised by Jacques Derrida, this article offers a critical read to Kosovo’s conundrums with its sovereignty. The main argument of this article is that in the system of sovereign states, Kosovo is permanently entangled in an aporetic situation in that it has to coexist between being a recognised and a contested state; between a legitimate and illegitimate polity; between unequivocally European and permanently detached from the EU. The article relies on longitudinal data gathered from digital and traditional ethnographic research in Kosovo conducted over the past seven years, including a dozen interviews with NGO actors, university professors, and journalists in Kosovo. In its conclusion, the article opens up the debate whether the only way to imagine Kosovo is in it being permanently unfinished, oscillating between meanings, concepts, and statuses.