Ethnic Identity & Politics : attitudes of young people in Bosnia-Herzegovina
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2014-08
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en
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Abstract
Ethnic identity played a major role in the 1992-1995 war in Bosnia-Herzegovina and continues to be a
major source of controversy and political tension today. The October 2013 census, the first one to be
held in more than twenty years, raised a particularly heated debate on three questions aimed at
measuring ethnicity/nationality, religion, and mother tongue. Other policy areas such as
constitutional reform and education are also dominated by ethnic strife. Nevertheless, there are also
indications that ethnicity is no longer the defining aspect in peoples’ lives. This is not to say that it
has disappeared, but rather that is has become part of a complex identity structure that changes
with time, place and social context.
Surprisingly, the existence of alternative and contextual identities is a topic that is rarely
researched in the context of Bosnia-Herzegovina, nor is it acknowledged by the country’s
mainstream political parties. Instead, most attention is given to the categorisation of people on the
basis of ethnic labels. There are occasions in which people are mobilised across ethnic boundaries on
issues such as crime or lack of political progress, but these are often restricted to one-time events
that are focussed on a specific issue which affects people regardless of their ethnicity. Although there
seems to be a potential to mobilise people across ethnic boundaries, the success of political parties
based on a multi-ethnic ideology has been modest at best. It seems difficult to translate support for
cross-ethnic protests and citizen movements into political influence.
A rather narrow understanding of identity often prevails in Bosnia-Herzegovina, one that is
limited to ethnicity, religion, and language. Alternative identities are oftentimes treated as irrelevant
and grouped together under the heading ‘Other’. However, the complexities of identity and political
beliefs are too important to leave unattended, especially those of young people in countries
recovering from conflict. Today’s young people are the political, economic and cultural leaders of
tomorrow and they will bring their attitudes, whether positive or negative, with them when they
take over responsibility for running the country. It is also the first generation that has completed a
full cycle of post-war education that propagated a different identity discourse than before the war. It
is therefore surprising that there have not been more studies that focus on adolescents, as there are
universal lessons to be learned concerning the link between social categorisation, identity and
politics. The goal of this thesis is therefore to do what the census failed to do: to assess the
importance of ethnicity in the identity and political attitudes of young people in Bosnia-Herzegovina.
The main question of this study is thus as follows:
How important is ethnicity in the identity of young people in Bosnia-Herzegovina and how does this
relate to their political viewpoints?
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Faculteit der Managementwetenschappen