Paper short abstract:

Many analyses focus too strongly on ethnicity and religion as a cause of conflict in BiH. In this presentation, I suggest concentrating on the dividing lines within social categories in society. Network theory is useful for the analysis of conflicts and provides input for peace-building strategies.

Paper long abstract:

During my 14 months working experience in the Bosnian town of Sarajevo one question often crossed my mind: how could a town that was - because of its history of relatively peaceful inter-ethnic and inter-religious co-habitation - formerly hailed as the "Bosnian Jerusalem" become the site of a sudden and violent inter-ethnic war (1992-1995)?

Notwithstanding the known influences originating from the neighbouring countries, many analyses focus too strongly on ethnicity and religion as a cause of conflict in Bosnia. There are other powerful social categories that influence identity in Bosnian society. This emic categories can be shown for example in the choice of swearwords; this is a place, where various social categories become apparent (e.g. rural-city relations, gender, employment).

In this paper I suggest a model of analysis that concentrates on the dividing lines in the social categories within society, where one indicator for social balance is set by the formation of groups that consist of different configurations of people.

Therefore, an opponent in one social category, e.g. religion, can be partner in another category, e.g. employment. This mixed identities of people in society act as pressure relief from social tensions.

Fractures that divide society along the same lines and lead to clearly defined social blocks serve as indicators for either growing tensions (process view) or strong hierarchical relations with distinctive power discrepancies (system view).