Times, theories and practices in social psychology.

This paper begins by problematizing the `taken for granted' status of Newtonian linear time at the heart of (social) psychology. Borrowing from Adam, the paper makes a distinction between an `events in time' and `time in events' approach to social psychology. It argues that a `time in events' approach helps to reveal the importance of multiple times for social psychological theories and practices. To demonstrate this approach, it considers some of the multiple times that are relevant for analysing the concept of `identity'. It also explores the multiple times of the research encounter. In doing so, it suggests that traditional dichotomies in social psychology between synchronic and diachronic methods, and between experimental and qualitative methods, can be dissolved by this focus on the temporal. The paper concludes with some observations about the importance of time for thinking about social psychology as a knowledge-producing practice

Central secession: towards a new analytical concept? The case of former Yugoslavia

Political literature customarily defines secession as a movement developing in the periphery against the centre. This article questions this common assumption by raising the possibility that secession may be propelled by the centre. A working definition of 'central secession' (or 'secessionism by the centre') will be limited to those cases where a powerful nationalist movement operates from within the core or dominant nation(ality). The focus will be on the break-up of Yugoslavia - the disintegration of which was consistently and widely perceived as a conflict of secessionist republics opposed by, and confronted with, a unitary state. A brief geo-political excursus of recent secessionist movements will serve to highlight the singularity of the Yugoslav 'model'. In the case of Serbia, the rhetoric was adamantly unitarian, anti-secessionist, even anti-nationalist. It emphasised the defence of territorial integrity at all costs. In this way, the centre could cast itself as the spotless saviour of the country's integrity versus a 'treacherous' periphery. In fact, the hidden agenda of the regime was ethnic separation - of Serbs from non-Serb