The Divided City and the Grassroots: The (Un)making of Ethnic Divisions in Mostar

201 Pages·2018·3.259 MB·English

by  Giulia Carabelli

THE DIVIDED CITY
AND THE GRASSROOTS
The (un)making of
ethnic divisions in Mostar
GIULIA CARABELLI
The Contemporary City
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Lingnan University
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Richard Ronald
University of Amsterdam
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Giulia Carabelli
The Divided City and
the Grassroots
The (Un)making of Ethnic Divisions in Mostar
Giulia Carabelli
Max Planck Institute for the Study of
Ethnic and Religious Diversity
Göttingen, Germany
The Contemporary City
ISBN 978-981-10-7777-7 ISBN 978-981-10-7778-4 (eBook)
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-7778-4
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P
reface
In 2015, Radio Slobodna Evropa (Radio Free Europe) introduced
several teenagers from Mostar as part of a documentary programme
(Perspektiva) discussing how young people understand the ‘division’.
When a young man stated candidly not only that he has never crossed
to the eastern side or visited the Old Bridge, but also that it was possible
to determine the ethnicity of people in Mostar because of their skin col-
our, the commentary section on the Radio’s webpage registered different
levels of surprise and stupor from throughout the region. Some thought
that the young people speaking were not representative of Mostar; some
blamed their parents for imprinting fear and hatred into their brains; oth-
ers refrained from commenting, arguing that (not being from Mostar)
one cannot fully understand the situation. Where is the truth about
Mostar? Which representation is more plausible?
This is a monograph about the city of Mostar, in Bosnia and
Herzegovina, a city that, in the eyes of many, became the epitome of eth-
nic divisions, religious violence and nationalist intolerance. It accounts
for how processes of violent partitioning, and counter-processes that
attempt to undo existing divisions, make, remake, and un-make urban
divides. This book reflects upon how approaching the study of deeply
divided societies means engaging with deeply divided narratives that are
never settled. Accordingly, the main aim of this project is to provide a
multifaceted and in-depth understanding of the social, political, and
mundane dynamics that keep this city polarised whilst considering the
v
vi PREFACE
potential that moments of inter-ethnic collaboration hold in reimagining
Mostar as other than divided.
Nostalgically remembered as one of the most ‘mixed’ cities of
Yugoslavia, Mostar became an ethnically ‘divided city’ in the 1990s when,
following the violent dismantling of the Socialist Federal Republic of
Yugoslavia, it was formally partitioned between antagonistic communi-
ties—Croat and Bosniak—in order to bring hostilities to an end. In 2004,
the city’s administration was forcefully re-united by external actors and,
since then, scholars, peace-makers, and urban practitioners have amply
researched the misfiring of the (imposed) reunification, focusing on the
resulting Kafkaesque bureaucracy, the segregated educational system, and
the contested administration as a means to expose the national and inter-
national failure to re-create a tolerant, safe, and inclusive environment.
However, less attention has been paid to actors, initiatives, and events
that actually disrupt the encompassing logics of this ‘divided city’, which
would create the very possibility for narrating (and imagining) Mostar as
more than divided. Based on participatory research in Mostar, this book
aims to challenge and destabilise the representation of the city as merely a
site of ethnic divisions. Interview extracts, maps, photographs, vignettes,
anecdotes, and personal memories will immerse the reader into the every-
day of Mostar, as a means of exploring the inconsistencies, complexities,
and problems arising from living in a city that validates its citizens solely
through ethnicity. Against the backdrop of normalised practices of ethnic
partitioning, the book draws attention to both ‘planned’ and ‘unplanned’
moments of disruption; it looks at how supra-ethnic spaces come into
existence regardless of identity politics, as well as delving into the plans,
practice, and expectations of organised grassroots groups that attempt
to create more inclusive spaces in which the future of the city could be
reimagined. In doing so, the book reconstructs the uneven history of
re-building Mostar physically, socially, and politically.
Conceptually, the book elaborates on crucial questions about the
relationships between space, culture and social change. Inspired by the
work of Henri Lefebvre, and in dialogue with critical urban theories, the
book explores the becoming and un-becoming of Mostar as an ethni-
cally divided city. It discusses how space is imagined, designed, and built
at the level of political administration, and the various practices through
which the city is re-appropriated, experienced, and lived through pat-
terns of everyday life, thus emphasising the conjuncture and disjuncture
between the actual, the planned, and the possible. By investigating not
PREFACE vii
only how the city is administered, planned, and represented (in political
and academic discourses) but also the ways in which the city is lived and
used by its citizens, the book reveals the emancipatory possibilities that
are embedded within (yet simultaneously suppressed by) quotidian prac-
tices of inter-ethnic cooperation.
Drawing on the emblematic case of Mostar, the book promises to
make significant contributions to three broad fields of study: ethno-
nationally divided cities, urban conflict studies, and the politics of grass-
roots movements in the context of socio-cultural segregation. It explores
the discursive emergence of Mostar as an intolerant and hopeless place
of division and the impact this narrative has on the everyday life of the
city, the understandings of what the city can and cannot become, and
the very possibility of subverting such ethnic divisions. It then contrasts
the globalised production of Mostar as a place of ethnic hatred with the
practice of local initiatives that make visible moments of cooperation,
solidarity, and consensus building among supposedly antagonistic actors,
which thus challenges the very representation of Mostar as perennially
divided.
This book discusses critically the limits of mainstream representa-
tions of Mostar as simply a site of ethnic hatred, and in turn excavate
the struggles and expectations of activists and citizens who feel misrepre-
sented by the labels of ethnic rivalries, and who attest for the existence of
counter-movements that rarely become visible through academic or pol-
icy circles. What lessons can be learnt from these grassroots attempts to
change the status quo? How can we write about ‘divided cities’ in a more
complex fashion that situates the struggle for social change in a more vis-
ible light? How do we explore the everyday life of a divided city in such
a way as to lay bare the materialisation of its potentials and to become a
motor of social change? These are the ambitious questions that the book
aims to answer.
In offering novel explorations on divided cities, which critically
engages with urban spaces of resistance in order to account for the activ-
ities of those who are already producing change, this book will be of
interest to scholars, students, and urban practitioners studying ethnically
divided cities worldwide. It will appeal to urban researchers interested in
Lefebvrian studies, and peacekeepers working in deeply segregated envi-
ronments.
This book is largely based on the research conducted for my doctoral
project within the framework of the Conflict in Cities and the Contested
viii PREFACE
State project funded by the Economic and Social Research Council of
the UK (RES-060-25-00150). I am also grateful to Queen’s University
Belfast who awarded me a DEL scholarship to complete this project in
the School of Sociology, Social Policy and Social Work. Some of the
material presented in the book was produced and gathered through
my collaboration with Abart, a platform for urban research and art
production, which I also thank for allowing the publication of maps that
were designed as part of the (Re)collecting Mostar project.
I cannot but thank all those who contributed—in various ways—
to the development of my research and book project. I am very grate-
ful to my supervisor, Liam O’Down and various colleagues at Queen’s
University Belfast—especially Martina McKnight, Milena Komarova, and
Katy Hayward for their feedback on early versions of my doctoral work.
For the many thought-provoking conversations around Queen’s library,
I am grateful to Conor Browne, Delyth Edwards, Monika Halkort,
Maylis Konnecke, and Merita Zeković. I am indebted to my research
partners in Mostar and Sarajevo, many of whom became dear friends:
Belma Arnautović, Đenan Bemen, Kristina Ćorić, Vlado Ćorić, Marina
Đapić, Senada Demirović Habibija, Srđan Gavrilović, Katie Hampton,
Goran Karanović, Đenita Kuštrić, Narcis Mehmedbašić, Muky, Claudia
and Stefania Muresu, and Giulia Pischianz. For the generous and contin-
uous support, I thank Anja Bogojević, Amila Puzić, and Mela Žuljević,
the brilliant women who founded Abart in Mostar. For many inspir-
ing conversations and for encouraging the writing of this book, I thank
Aline Cateux, Gruia Badescu, Camila Cociña, Paola Dalla Vecchia,
Aleksandra Djurasovic, Neil Galway, Liza Griffin, Zsofia Lorand, Dawn
Lyon, Catalina Ortiz, Diana Pedone, Giada Pieri, Renata Summa, and
Margherita Vezzosi. Special gratitude goes to my family, Marilena
Goracci, Alberto and Francesco Carabelli and Alba Foglia for support-
ing and encouraging my academic aspirations and to my colleagues at
the Max Planck Institute for the Study of Ethnic and Religious Diversity,
Jeremy Walton, Annika Kirbis, Miloš Jovanović, Piro Rexhepi, and
Marina Cziesielsky.
For the continuous support, advice, and for all the happy memories
related to the research and writing of this book, I am forever grateful to
Maria Andreana Deiana and Rowan Lubbock.
Göttingen, Germany Giulia Carabelli
c
ontents
1 Introduction 1
2 Imagining, Planning, and Building Mostar After the War 41
3 The Everyday Life of Mostar 83
4 Grassroots Movements and the Production of (Other)
Space(s) 123
5 Conclusion 171
Index 187
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