Paper short abstract:

Research using ethnographic content analysis focuses on recordings from besieged Dobrinja during the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Paper evaluates analysed material as an ethnographic record, as body of knowledge on survival strategies and as a tool of empowerment.

Paper long abstract:

The proposed paper focuses on amateur, semi-amateur and professional video recordings of the events from Dobrinja during the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina between 1992 and 1995. By adopting ethnographic content analysis, over 30 hours of video material, accessible via the YouTube platform was analysed. The analysis shows extraordinary ingenuity of people in Dobrinja in developing survival strategies and innovation and efficiency in social and cultural organization, despite the extremely long and harsh siege of the city. Paper strives to evaluate analysed material (1) as an ethnographic record of the events during the siege of the settlement, (2) as potentially transmissive body of knowledge on survival strategies that were developed as a response to exceptionally difficult circumstances and (3) as a tool of empowerment of people that survived the ordeal.