ANNALES, SERIES HISTORIA ET SOCIOLOGIA

Hate Speech

Veronika Bajt — 2025-12-30

In July 2024, an interdisciplinary academic symposium about hate speech took place in Ljubljana. This international professional exchange was the foundation for the articles appearing in this special issue of Annales, Series Historia et Sociologia; ultimately, these articles together argue that a synthesis of knowledge scattered throughout different disciplines is the way forward if we wish to understand this complex phenomenon.

The Sociology of Hate Speech

Veronika Bajt — 2025-12-30

Hate speech reflects and reinforces underlying prejudices and structural inequalities, functioning as a mechanism to maintain existing power dynamics and social hierarchies. It is a multifaceted sociological phenomenon that intersects with the multileveled concepts of nationalism, racism, gender, and migration. This article argues that a comprehensive understanding of these intersections is necessary to sociologically analyse hate speech, revealing this interplay between systemic power structures and individual prejudices. This is necessary if we are to understand and mitigate the rising influence of hate speech in society.

Hate Speech and Hate by Design

Marta Stojić Mitrović — 2025-12-30

This article explores hate speech as a governing logic embedded in Serbia’s migration management, extending beyond explicit verbal hostility to encompass institutionalized silence, public spectacles, and policy design. Drawing on speech act theory, critical discourse analysis, and scholarship on racialized governance, it conceptualizes hate speech as a performative act with perlocutionary force. Through ethnographic and discursive analysis, the article shows how people on the move are rendered both hyper-visible and absent – criminalized, pitied, or erased – depending on political need. It argues that hate speech, framed through calculated ambivalence and absent presence, sustains exclusionary practices and legitimizes state and societal violence against migrants.

Cultural Racism, Gendered Othering, and Hate Speech

Ana Frank — 2025-12-30

This paper examines the role of cultural racism, gendered othering, and hate speech in Slovenia through the lens of postcolonial theory, psychoanalysis, and intersectional feminism. It incorporates the concept of the imaginary as a sociosymbolic structure shaping perceptions of identity and exclusion. Using qualitative data from interviews and focus groups, this study reveals how hate speech functions as a disciplinary mechanism rooted in historical and affective imaginaries. These imaginaries normalize discrimination and project societal anxieties onto marginalized groups. The research highlights the need to address systemic imaginaries to effectively combat hate speech and promote inclusive social transformation.

“Ready for the Homeland”

Katarina Damčević — 2025-12-30

This paper examines the role of cultural texts in post-conflict societies, focusing on hate speech and identity formation through the lens of cultural semiotics. It analyzes the Ustaša salute Ready for the Homeland” (Za dom spremni, ZDS) in Croatia, exploring its symbolic function and normalization within institutional frameworks. The study shows how declarations such as the Croatian Homeland War Declaration act as institutionalized cultural texts that legitimize exclusionary symbols like ZDS. These texts embed such symbols into the dominant post-war memory regime, reinforcing polarization and shaping collective identity.

Ethnic Terms in Turkish

Melike Akkaraca Kose — 2025-12-30

This article examines the complex phenomenon of Ethnic/Social Terms used as Insults (ESTIs) in Turkish, focusing on ethnic terms such as ‘Ermeni’ (Armenian), ‘Yunan’ (Greek), ‘Rum’ (Greek), and ‘Yahudi’ (Jew/Jewish). These terms uniquely function as both neutral ethnic descriptors and pejoratives for slurring. This research investigates the linguistic characteristics and pragmatic functions of ESTIs focusing on their dual derogatory nature in being both non-referential and restricted referential in their derogation. It also explores their pragmatic characteristics focusing on derogatory autonomy, negation, and rejection, by discussing their similarities and differences with typical slurs.

Digital Discourse Dilemmas

Zoran Fijavž — 2025-12-30

This paper examines content moderation practices in Slovenian digital media organizations, based on interviews with representatives from RTV Slovenija, Mladina, Metropolitan, and Starševski čvek, as well as comment guidelines of the 14 most visited online media and a large forum. Comment standards address socially unacceptable speech beyond illegal content. Larger digital media organizations have developed elaborate in-house systems, while the rest rely on social media platform tools. Sustaining moderation requires significant resources and exacts an emotional toll on moderators. Effective approaches enable flexible moderator responses, utilizing technologies with a range of complexity.

Prosecutorial Practice on Hate Speech in Slovenia

Neža Kogovšek Šalamon — 2025-12-30

This article aims to determine how public prosecution deals with criminal reports concerning Article 297 of the Slovenian Penal Code on hate speech and explores the influence of the 2019 Slovenian Supreme Court judgment on this practice. The analysis is based on 98 closed case files of the prosecution from 2019 to 2023. The main findings indicate that the number of indictments and convictions remains low; criminal prosecution of cases is inconsistent; there are regional differences in prosecutorial practice; the impact of the 2019 decision is low; and the quality of documents produced by the prosecutor’s offices is deficient.

A Contribution to the Study of Ideas on Holding a Popular Vote for Greater Sovereignty/Independence of Slovenia (1945–1985)

Janez Osojnik — 2025-12-30

Drawing on an analysis of published sources and relevant scholarly literature, the article examines ideas of holding a popular vote (plebiscite) that emerged in the context of reflections on Slovenian national politics between the end of the Second World War and the second half of the 1980s. During this period, the majority of Slovenes, both in the homeland and in emigration, envisioned the future of the Slovenian nation within a federally organized Yugoslav state. Slovenian territory would have constituted one of its federal units. Within the Slovenian émigrés, however, ideas about the establishment of an independent Slovenian state also emerged. Some even envisaged holding a popular vote that would legitimize the state and as well as its accession to supranational unions after achieving independence. Among the individuals who considered such votes, Franc Jeza should be mentioned. Unlike other reflections presented in the article, Jeza’s ideas indicate that he considered holding a plebiscite on Slovenian independence unnecessary, although he did not oppose the instrument of popular voting itself. These ideas by Jeza emerged in the first half of the 1980s. Although it cannot be confirmed that ideas about the plebiscite, which emerged during the period discussed in the article, influenced the heightened awareness of this instrument in the (Socialist) Republic of Slovenia in the late 1980s and in 1990, the article argues that the idea of holding a vote on greater Slovenian sovereignty did not emerge suddenly. It had already appeared prior to 1990, when the plebiscite was eventually conducted.

Croatian Political Emigration in France as a Challenge to French-Yugoslav Relations (1980–1986)

Kaja Mujdrica — 2025-12-30

Based on a systematic analysis of archival materials from the French Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs in La Courneuve and Nantes, as well as the most relevant scholarly literature, this article examines the responses of French authorities and diplomacy to the activities of Croatian political émigrés, particularly the Croatian National Council (Hrvatsko narodno vijeće, HNV) in France, between 1980 and 1986. A key focus of the discussion is the extent to which the French authorities perceived these activities as a security threat, and the impact this had on Franco-Yugoslav diplomatic relations. The findings reveal that the Yugoslav authorities persistently warned of the dangers posed by Croatian émigré groups and repeatedly demanded their prohibition. However, French diplomacy responded to these pressures with restraint, invoking the principle of freedom of association and only restricting it when activities were deemed to endanger public order or bilateral relations with Yugoslavia. Despite occasional tensions, diplomatic dispatches suggest that French attention gradually declined after 1984. While Yugoslav representatives continued to emphasise the threat of so-called ‘Ustaša terrorism’, French diplomats often regarded such claims as exaggerated and tailored to the domestic political needs of the Yugoslav regime. The HNV was generally considered to be an organisation with limited influence on French public opinion and marginal political significance. This article demonstrates that French diplomacy maintained a characteristic dual approach when dealing with Croatian political émigrés: formally adhering to the principles of freedom of expression and association, while simultaneously applying selective security measures. By doing so, French diplomacy sought to balance the preservation of stable bilateral relations with Yugoslavia and upholding its own democratic principles.

Clothing the Nomad

Yanwen Lin — 2025-12-30

This study explores the intersection of fashion, gender identity, and postmodern nomadism by representing the image of the nomad in contemporary men’s fashion. The aim is to examine how nomadic aesthetics shape new visual narratives of masculinity, particularly within the framework of postmodern values such as hybridity, mobility, agender style, and sustainability. The research employs a qualitative visual analysis of selected fashion collections, advertisements, and subcultural imagery, drawing from global case studies. The results demonstrate how clothing becomes a key tool for expressing fragmented, adaptive identities and how urban nomadism reshapes the concept of masculinity through modular, layered, and multifunctional fashion design.

Bernard Nežmah

Mira Miladinović Zalaznik — 2025-12-30

Review.

Polona Tratnik

Jasmina Rejec — 2025-12-30

Review.