Negotiating Social Relations in Bosnia and Herzegovina: Semiperipheral Entanglements (Southeast European Studies)

Exploring recent configurations of social relations in post-socialist, post-war, post-Yugoslav Bosnia and Herzegovina this collection of ethnographic research turns an analytical lens on questions of sociality. Contributions based on long-term, in-depth research projects explore how people in different parts of BiH make and remake social relations and outline how their practices of sociality relate to donor-set priorities and formal human rights provisions. The book explores the socio-political concerns which have emerged within BiH, incites interdisciplinary conversations and sheds critical light on ways of engaging with these concerns and discusses forms of sociality, politics and agency which remain largely absent from the official political discourse and practice of local and foreign actors. Explicitly focusing on social relations in BiH against the historical background of both war and Yugoslav socialism, and directly placing these in relation to authoritative discourses and policies regarding BiH today brings the different strands together while the commentaries of specialists who have studied BiH in different ways explicitly situates the contribution of ethnographic work in the country. Notes On Contributors -- Acknowledgments -- Introduction -- New Ethnographic Perspectives On Mature Dayton Bosnia And Herzegovina / Stef Jansen, Carna Brkovic, Vanja Celebicic -- Whose Voice? : Post-war Articulations Of Political Subjectivities -- The Discretion Of Witnesses : War Camp Memories Between Politicisation And Civility / Cécile Jouhanneau -- Fragments Of Village Life And The Rough Ground Of The Political In Post-war Bih / David Henig -- Integrating During The War In After The War : Narrative Positionings In Post-war Sarajevo / Nejra Nuna Cengic -- Commentary / Armina Galija And Hrvoje Paic -- Whose Flexibility? : Informality In Practice -- Affective Labour : Work, Love And Care For The Elderly In Bihac / Azra Hromadic -- Flexibility Of Vezetele : Negotiating Social Protection In Bijeljina / Carna Brkovic -- The King Is Naked : Internationality, Informality And Ko Fol State-building / Karla Koutková -- Commentary / Paul Stubbs -- Whose Vote? : Engagements With Representative Democracy -- Beyond To Vote Or Not To Vote: How Youth Engage With Politics / Vanja Celebicic -- Future Conditional : Precarious Lives, Strange Loyalties And Ambivalent Subjects Of Dayton Bih / Larisa Kurtovic -- Commentary / Florian Bieber -- Who Are We In The First Place? -- Raja : The Ironic Subject Of Everyday Life In Sarajevo / Neboja Savija-valha -- Excavating The Common Ground : Bosnian Pyramids And Post-national Communities / Larisa Jacarevic -- Commentary / Svjetlana Nedimovic -- Afterword -- Afterwards: Beyond Regionally-based Theoretical Metonyms / Michelle Obeid -- Works Cited -- Index. Edited By Stef Jansen, Čarna Brković And Vanja Čelebičić. Includes Bibliographical References And Index. Three Positionings in Use -- Notes -- Part II Whose Flexibility?: Informality in Practice -- 4 Affective Labour: Work, Love and Care for the Elderly in Bihac -- 'We are not in this for the Money' -- Post-war Assemblages: Family and Exile -- Socialist and Post-Socialist Forces: Coordinates of the Caring State -- Zooming into Post-War and Post-Socialist Bihac -- Modalities of Care and Labour -- Labouring for Minimal Profit -- Affective Labour -- Conclusion -- Notes -- 5 Flexibility of Veze / Štele: Negotiating Social Protection in Bijeljina -- Ignorance and Stubbornness -- Managing Ambiguity Ethnography in the Semiperiphery: Shades -- Notes -- Part I Whose Voice?: Post-War Articulations of Political Subjectivities -- 1 The Discretion of Witnesses: War Camp Memories Between Politicisation and Civility -- 'The Living Witnesses of the Genocide': How the Recounting of Camp Detention was Converted into a ... -- A Nationalist Duty to Testify -- 'The First Voices of the Victims to Atrocities in the Former Yugoslavia' -- The Scarcity of Public Witnesses -- So few Simon Wiesenthals -- Avoiding Public Speech in an 'Office' -- Not to 'Sit like a Dog': A Certain Idea of Associative Life Discretion as the Preservation of Civil Peace -- Situated Silences: The Everyday Production of Consensus -- Confined Memories -- Conclusion -- Notes -- 2 Fragments of Village Life and the Rough Ground of the Political in Post-War BiH -- Towards the Rough Ground of the Political -- A Village Perspective -- Fragments of Village Life -- A Tale of Winners and Losers -- A Tale of Abandonment -- Conclusion -- Notes -- 3 Integrating 'During the War' in 'After the War': Narrative Positionings in Post-War Sarajevo -- The One Who Stayed Put -- The One Who Knows -- The One Who Is Owed Cover -- Half Title -- Series Information -- Title Page -- Copyright Page -- Table of Contents -- Notes on Contributors -- Acknowledgements -- Introduction: New Ethnographic Perspectives on Mature Dayton Bosnia and Herzegovina -- Identitarianism and Dayton BiH as a Post-War Setting: A Round Table for Negotiations? -- Contextualising Ethnonational Categories in Social Practices -- Keeping One's Head Above Water: A Semiperipheral Swamp? -- A Lasting Sense of Being Stuck: A Waiting Room and a Labyrinth? -- Chronotopes and Mature Dayton BiH Forms of Affect Flexible Procedures -- Meeting the Mayor -- Social Protection in the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia -- Conclusion -- Notes -- 6 'The King is Naked': Internationality, Informality and Ko Fol State-Building -- Introduction -- 'Running the Raj of Bosnia and Herzegovina': Internationality, Power and Privilege -- Contesting the Distinction Between the 'Internationals' and the 'Locals' -- Practices of Employment and Employment of 'Practices' inside the Mission -- Conclusion -- Notes -- Part III Whose Vote?: Engagements with Representative Democracy 7 Beyond to Vote or Not to Vote: How Young People Engage with Politics