|
| << previous | next >> |
Journal description
All volumes of the corresponding journal
All issues of the corresponding volume
All articles of the corresponding issues
Details for article 43 of 47 found articles
| Title: |
The Power of Administrative Categories: Emerging Notions of Citizenship in the Divided City of Mostar |
| Author: |
Vetters, Larissa |
| Appeared in: |
Ethnopolitics |
| Paging: | Volume 6 (2007) nr. 2 pages 187-209 |
| Year: |
2007-06 |
| Contents: |
This contribution discusses the construction of citizenship as a category of belonging in the newly formed multi-ethnic state of Bosnia-Herzegovina (BiH). Due to the violent conflicts between 1991-1995, ethno-national identifications are today often seen as overriding and exclusive means of defining group-membership in BiH. Whether and how citizens fill the concept of citizenship with any meaning of belonging to a state-wide community remains an open question. Drawing on fieldwork recently conducted in Mostar, I provide some tentative answers to this question. My research focuses on the process of re-unifying politico-administrative structures in this formerly divided city and closely follows interactions between international agents, citizens and various public bodies. Attributing special importance to administrative categorization practices, I argue that these constitute a source of shared experience for citizens, thus shaping their perception of what it means to be a citizen of BiH. Events in Mostar show how such a shared experience of bureaucratic categorization practices might become a powerful incentive for multiethnic collective action and a source for imagining a multiethnic, civic community. The same categorization practices might also fuel new divisive forces that diminish the internal solidarity of ethnic groups and instill new categorical divisions within the local community. I demonstrate the complexity of such processes in the case of the closely related post-war categories “refugee”, “internally displaced person” and “returnee” and conclude with some remarks on the intricacy of post-war state-building in Bosnia-Herzegovina. |
| Publisher: |
Routledge |
| Source file: |
Elektronische Wetenschappelijke Tijdschriften |
Details for article 43 of 47 found articles
| << previous | next >> |