The socio-cultural and political significance of coffeehouses and coffee culture during the independence processes of Kosovo

Abstract

The coffee culture in the Balkans spread and developed as the Ottoman Empire began using the region as a base that opened into Europe. This region with great strategic significance draws attention not only because it functioned as a bridge between the East and the West but also because of cultural and political values in perspective of the process of changes and developments that have taken place throughout time. As an establishment the coffeehouse is a vital concept for society. Beside their fundamental functions, coffeehouses have gained additional functions over the course of history. These additional functions are directed by socio-cultural and political behaviours. This research paper aims to focus on the socio-cultural and political roles of the coffee culture and coffeehouses with regard to the independence and liberation movements that took place with beginning with the disintegration of Yugoslavia, particularly in Kosovo. Within this context, the crucial role of coffeehouses is explained through the struggle every fraction of society went through to keep their own cultural and political identities alive in order to pull through the negative circumstances created in Kosovo by the wars experienced in the region in the 1990s. Furthermore, this paper also aims to reveal the significant role coffeehouses and their spatial functions play when a nation undertakes the immense challenge of emancipation.