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Tourism governance in post-war transition: The case of Kosova REKA, Shqiperim Available from the Sheffield Hallam University Research Archive (SHURA) at: http://shura.shu.ac.uk/24197/ A Sheffield Hallam University thesis This thesis is protected by copyright which belongs to the author. The content must not be changed in any way or sold commercially in any format or medium without the formal permission of the author. When referring to this work, full bibliographic details including the author, title, awarding institution and date of the thesis must be given. Please visit http://shura.shu.ac.uk/24197/ and http://shura.shu.ac.uk/information.html for further details about copyright and re-use permissions. "Tourism governance in post-war transition: the case of Kosova" Shqiperim Reka A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements of Sheffield Hallam University for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy February 2017 Abstract The aim of this research study was to examine tourism governance in post-war transition with specific reference to the influence of political, economic and social factors, institutional arrangements, collaboration and power relations. Within this context, a crucial objective was to assess the role of mindset. Reviewing the literature in relation to the key concepts, it was discovered that research tends to focus on political and economic transition, whereas the social dimension, despite its importance, is largely neglected. Similarly, tourism governance has been overlooked in studies of tourism in post-war transition. Furthermore, the literature on tourism governance rarely takes the issue of mindset into account. To address these gaps in knowledge, a qualitative research approach was applied to study tourism governance in post-war transitional Kosova. Semi-structured interviews were carried out with 56 stakeholders from different sectors of Kosova’s tourism industry and beyond; these were examined using thematic analysis based on Robson’s (2011) five phases. Political, economic and social conditions were found to strongly influence tourism governance; therefore, it is argued that tourism governance cannot be determined without considering these dimensions. In particular, the findings emphasise the importance of acknowledging the social dimension of transition, since, if there is no societal change and advancement from the pre-war era, it obstructs political and economic transition processes, through crucial aspects, for example, educational barriers. Overall, tourism governance was found to be constrained by weak institutional arrangements, limited collaborative efforts, imbalanced power relations between the central government and tourism institutions and high level of politicisation. Thus, the conditions of tourism governance largely reflect the overall conditions of transition in post-war Kosova. A key finding of this study is the importance of ‘mindset’ in being an integral part to Kosova’s transition, and particularly, tourism governance. The findings were used to develop a theoretical framework that can guide future research. I Table of contents Chapter 1. Introduction ............................................................................................ 1 1.1. Context of the study ............................................................................................... 1 1.2. Key concepts of this study ..................................................................................... 3 1.2.1. Post-war transition .......................................................................................... 3 1.2.2. Tourism in post-war transition........................................................................ 4 1.2.3. Tourism governance ........................................................................................ 5 1.2.4. Mindset ........................................................................................................... 6 1.3. Research problem .................................................................................................. 8 1.4. Aim and objectives ............................................................................................... 10 1.5. Methodological considerations ........................................................................... 11 1.6. Structure of the thesis .......................................................................................... 12 Chapter 2: Research location – Kosova .................................................................... 16 2.1. Key characteristics................................................................................................ 16 2.2. Kosova's political, economic and social history ................................................... 18 Kosova under Tito's Yugoslavia (up to 1989) .......................................................... 18 Pre-war tension and resistance (1989-1997) .......................................................... 20 The war in Kosova (1998-1999) .............................................................................. 25 Post-war transition: Kosova under UNMIK (1999-2007) ........................................ 26 Post-war transition: New Born Kosova (2008-present) .......................................... 28 2.3. Challenges of post-war transition ........................................................................ 30 Political challenges .................................................................................................. 30 Economic challenges ............................................................................................... 31 Social challenges ..................................................................................................... 33 2.4. Tourism in Kosova ................................................................................................ 34 Tourism in Kosova under the former Socialist Yugoslavia ...................................... 34 Tourism in Kosova in post-war transition ............................................................... 35 2.5. Summary .............................................................................................................. 36 Chapter 3. Literature Review .................................................................................. 38 3.1. Introduction ......................................................................................................... 38 II 3.2. Post-war transition ............................................................................................... 40 3.2.1. Introduction .................................................................................................. 40 3.2.2. Definition and understanding of ‘post-war transition’ ................................. 40 3.2.3. Dimensions of post-war transition................................................................ 42 3.2.4. Summary ....................................................................................................... 50 3.3. Implications of post-war transition on the role of tourism ................................. 51 3.4. Tourism governance ............................................................................................. 54 3.4.1. Introduction .................................................................................................. 54 3.4.2. Definition and understanding 'governance' ................................................. 55 3.4.3. Institutional arrangements ........................................................................... 60 3.4.4. Collaboration ................................................................................................. 62 3.4.5. Power relations ............................................................................................. 65 3.5. Mindset ................................................................................................................ 70 3.5.1. Introduction .................................................................................................. 70 3.5.2. Understanding ‘mindset’............................................................................... 71 3.5.3. Mindset in post-war transition ..................................................................... 72 3.5.4. Mindset in tourism governance (in post-war transition).............................. 74 3.6. Conceptual framework......................................................................................... 75 3.7. Chapter summary ................................................................................................. 79 Chapter 4. Methodology ......................................................................................... 83 4.1. Introduction ......................................................................................................... 83 4.2. Philosophical perspective .................................................................................... 83 4.2.1. Ontological, epistemological and axiological assumptions .......................... 83 4.2.2. Personal background and familiarity ............................................................ 85 4.3. Methodological approach .................................................................................... 86 4.4. Research methods ................................................................................................ 89 4.5. Sampling ..............................................................................................................