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Peace for Whom: Agency and Intersectionality in Post-War Bosnia and Herzegovina

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Peace for Whom: Agency and Intersectionality in Post-War Bosnia and Herzegovina Peace for Whom: Agency and Intersectionality in Post-War Bosnia and Herzegovina By Elena B. Stavrevska Submitted to Central European University Doctoral School of Political Science, Public Policy and International Relations In partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Supervisor: Professor Michael Merlingen CEU eTD Collection Budapest, Hungary January 2017 Declaration I hereby declare that this thesis contains no materials accepted for any other degrees, in any other situation. Thesis contains no materials written and/or published by any other person, except when appropriate acknowledgement is made in the form of bibliographical reference. Elena B. Stavrevska Budapest, 09.01.2017 CEU eTD Collection i ABSTRACT Both peacebuilding practice and mainstream literature have predominantly approached the examination of post-war societies is a static and unidimensional manner, portraying events, practices, and actors as fixed in space, time, and identity. In line with that approach, peace and reconciliation have often been understood as a mirror image of the preceding war. Consequently, when the conflict is regarded as a clash between different ethnicities, peace is viewed as a state of those ethnicities coming together, which is then reflected in the decision- and policy-making processes. This understanding, using the prism of groupism whereby (ethnic) groups are analysed as the primary societal actors, ascribed with particular characteristics and agency, presupposes homogeneity of the groups in question. In so doing, it disregards the various intra-group struggles and the multiplicity of social identities beyond ethnicity. Furthermore, it also cements ethnicity as the most important, if not the only important political cleavage in the new, post-war reality. The described tendency contributes to important dynamics, social practices, and intersubjectivities remaining unrecognised. This thesis, thus, grapples with the question of how such understanding of peace, as ethnic peace, affects different actors in post- war societies. What kinds of subjectivity and agency are created and enacted as a result and which ones are excluded and silenced? What relations of power and inequality are consolidated in the process? CEU eTD Collection ii The thesis problematises agency at the level of post-war societies and sheds light on the social dynamics, practices of inequality, and modalities of agency that certain peacebuilding initiatives (re)inscribe. In an attempt to highlight the simultaneous situatedness of actors in multiple evolving relational contexts, it uses the concept of intersectionality, which draws attention to intersecting social identities, systems of power, and forms of inequality. It particularly examines ethnicity, gender, class, and age, as some of the major existing axes of social division. Drawing on a ten-month ethnographic research in Bosnia and Herzegovina, intersectionality is used as a heuristic device in three case studies, with ethnicity, gender, and class as analytic entry points. The first case study looks at the lives and practices of people living near the Inter-Entity Boundary Line. The second one zeroes in on women that have taken out micro loans aimed at addressing household poverty and promoting gender equality and female empowerment through entrepreneurship. The third and final case study relates to the subsistence and informal economies, with particular focus on the people working at the Arizona market near Brčko and taxi drivers in various Bosnian towns. Relating the Bosnian examples to macro processes, the thesis offers a number of recommendations for peacebuilding practitioners and scholars. CEU eTD Collection iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS There is a reason why the acknowledgments are among the last parts of a dissertation one writes. By the end of this extraordinarily long, challenging, but above all, rewarding journey, I am humbled by the number of people without whose energy, time, patience, wisdom and love I would not have made it this far. Some have contributed directly to the content of the thesis, yet others have contributed to my thinking and wellbeing. To all of them, I am eternally grateful! For helping me get this thesis off the ground, keep it on track and see it to completion, but even more importantly, for tremendously contributing to my intellectual maturing, I am forever indebted to my primary supervisor and mentor, Professor Michael Merlingen. Words fail me in grasping how encouraging and patient he has been, even when I was not the easiest of supervisees. I am also thankful to my secondary supervisor, Professor John Shattuck, from whose insightful Bosnia-related comments and overall academic guidance this thesis and I have benefited greatly. My gratitude extends to the colleagues from the EU-funded project “Cultures of Governance and Conflict Resolution in Europe and India” as well, from whom I have learned a great deal and whose thought-provoking discussions, critical perspectives and intellectual rigor have affected my views and approaches as a researcher in countless ways. My thinking on important aspects of the thesis significantly benefited by the research stay at the Trudeau Center for Peace, Conflict and Justice at the University of Toronto, and by the discussions with Nancy Bertoldi, Lee Ann Fujii and Andrew Gilbert. The fellowship at the Institute for European Politics in Berlin and the colleagues there indirectly contributed to the shaping of this project in its early stages. This ethnographic study was only possible thanks to the kindness, warmth and wit of the countless people of Bosnia and Herzegovina, who took their time to speak to me. Thank you, tetka Sehija and tetka Mira, Vladimir, Jesenko, Mirza, Dejan, Igor, Asja, Mirna, Tarik, Jana, Denisa, Maja, Jovanka and Velid, for welcoming me in your homes, in your experiences and your networks! I cannot put into words what your support has meant to me. Learning about Bosnia and Herzegovina, which then guided my research, was invaluably aided by the staff at the Foreign Policy Initiative during my first longer stay in Sarajevo and by the staff of MI-BOSPO around the country. To Stefan, Jasmin, Karla, Natalia, Dzeneta and Branka, I am thankful for the academic solidarity during my time in and away from Bosnia. I have been incredibly fortunate to embark on this journey with the most amazing colleagues who have become my family away from home. Elene, Dane, David, Sanja and Manuel, thank you for all the years of love, laughter and learning! I am truly grateful CEU eTD Collection to Christina, Ally, Izzi, Martin, Jose, Prashant, Ilina, Sanja, Olimpija, Lidija, Olga, Jelena, Tea, Dragana, Vjerana, Elena, Tanja, Neda, Maja, and Mirije for their friendship, understanding and for keeping me grounded, and to Anastas, Biljana, Adela, Marija, Jordan and Mila for being an inspiration and continuing the good fight. iv This thesis would not have been written without the tremendous support, love and encouragement of my mother and brother. Their selflessness and belief in me have been a motivation to get to the finish line. Finally, this endeavour was largely motivated by my late father, who had instilled in me the passion for social justice, the awareness of our own privileges and the thirst for knowledge. This is for him. CEU eTD Collection v Between the fear that something would happen and the hope that still it wouldn't, there is much more space than one thinks. On that narrow, hard, bare and dark space a lot of us spend their lives. - Ivo Andrić (1978) CEU eTD Collection vi TABLE OF CONTENTS Abstract ...................................................................................................... ii Acknowledgements .................................................................................... iv List of Abbreviations ................................................................................... x Introduction ............................................................................................... 1 Research question(s) and main argument .......................................................... 3 Situating the dissertation: The literature ............................................................. 5 Situating the dissertation: The empirics ............................................................. 8 Contribution ...................................................................................................... 16 Outline of the dissertation ................................................................................. 18 1 ‘There is never nothing going on’: Methodology, positionality and representation .......................................................................................... 22 Introduction ...................................................................................................... 22 1.1 Doing ethnography: Methodological approaches and research choices .... 26 1.2 Interpreting ethnography: The positionality of a post-Yugoslav female halfie ................................................................................................................. 31 1.3 Writing ethnography: Can the Bosnian speak? .......................................... 37 Conclusion........................................................................................................ 40 2 What local, whose local: Review of the literature and its gaps .............. 42 CEU eTD Collection Introduction ....................................................................................................
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