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Is It Always Us or Them: How Do Young Serbs and Bosniaks Perceive Intergroup Borders?

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Shaping Social Identities After Violent Conflict

Abstract

Serbia has been characterized by ethnic and religious disparities, a major source of low-scale conflicts and an obstacle for development of stronger social cohesion. This chapter reflects on the importance of exploring perspectives of young people who live in a post-conflict region on existing ethnic and religious divisions and ways to overcome it. Authors present data on the process of drawing borders between Us and Them, and discuss it in the light of a social identity approach and research findings. Moreover, the chapter offers youth perspective on redefining invisible but very tangible group borders and building more inclusive societies. Through a case study of relations between Serbs and Bosniaks, the authors provide a glimpse of the complexity of a post-conflict social environment and closely interwoven factors affecting social relations among youth.

Borders draw from the idea of distinctiveness. We are not what they are. We are the positive pole; they are the negative one.

(participant from Novi Pazar)

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Members of a Croatian extreme nationalist movement that engaged in terrorist activity before the Second World War and ruled Croatia with Nazi support after Yugoslavia was invaded and divided by the Germans in 1941. Serbs use the term as a derogatory name for Croats. Retrieved from www.oxforddictionaries.com/

  2. 2.

    Members of a Slavic nationalist guerrilla force in the Balkans, especially during the Second World War. Croats use the term as a derogatory name for Serbs. Retrieved from www.oxforddictionaries.com/

  3. 3.

    We measured the trust in different institutions, including media, by asking participants to rate on a five-point scale (1—total lack of trust; 5—complete trust) how much confidence they have in different institutions presented on a list.

  4. 4.

    According to the official webpage of the Ministry of State Administration and Local Self-Government of the Republic of Serbia, in 2016 there were 108 registered political parties.

  5. 5.

    The activism-cynicism scale that we applied in our study ranges from 1 to 5 and has been validated in previous research (Žeželj, 2007).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, University of Belgrade, Belgrade, Serbia

    Olja Jovanović & Maša Pavlović

Authors
  1. Olja Jovanović
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  2. Maša Pavlović
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychological Sciences, University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT, USA

    Felicia Pratto

  2. Faculty of Philosoph, Belgrade University, Belgrade, Serbia

    Iris Žeželj

  3. Social Sciences Unit, American University in Kosovo, Prishtina, USA

    Edona Maloku

  4. University of Banja Luka, Banja Luka, Bosnia and Herzegovina

    Vladimir Turjačanin

  5. Faculty of Media and Communications, Singidunum University, Belgrade, Serbia

    Marija Branković

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Jovanović, O., Pavlović, M. (2017). Is It Always Us or Them: How Do Young Serbs and Bosniaks Perceive Intergroup Borders?. In: Pratto, F., Žeželj, I., Maloku, E., Turjačanin, V., Branković, M. (eds) Shaping Social Identities After Violent Conflict. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-62021-3_5

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