Based on deep historical knowledge and a rich ethnographic analysis of protests in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Chiara Milan convincingly demonstrates that, in ethnically divided society, social movements mobilizing for social justice might help the (re)building of shared collective identities.
Donatella della Porta, Scuola Normale Superiore Firenze, Italy
During pessimistic thoughts on my country, I can see only a divided society transcending into the three separated communities and no force to bridge the divide. During less depressing observations, I also see the potential for ethnicity to be marginalized. This dichotomy exists in Bosnia-Herzegovina, but a question remains: who and what makes social mobilization beyond ethnicity possible? Chiara Milans book is an excellent starting point in the quest to find it out.
Neven Aneli, Regents University London, UK
The book offers an important insight into how social movements mobilize in multinational societies, such as Bosnia and Herzegovina. Through multiple waves of protests, citizens have come together, disregarding the rigid national division that has characterized post-war politics. Chiara Milan carefully shows when and how such social movements became possible and what their limitations have been. It is an excellent study informed by careful research and a sympathetic, yet critical, analysis of inclusive social movements in a critical context such as Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Florian Bieber, University of Graz, Austria
Milans book fills a significant empirical and conceptual gap in the extant scholarship. It engages with a key theme in the contentious politics literature: how does a momentum for change build, what legacies are passed from action to action, activist to activist? In this case, the focus is the emergence of non-ethnicised social movement activism in post-war Bosnia-Herzegovina a more fascinating and relevant case study is hard to imagine.
Adam Fagan, Kings College London, UK
Social Mobilization Beyond Ethnicity
This book offers an in-depth investigation of the emergence and spread of social mobilizations that transcend ethnicity in societies violently divided along ethno-national lines. Using Bosnia Herzegovina as a case study, the book explores episodes of mobilization which have superseded ethno-nationalist cleavages.
Bosnia Herzegovina emerged from the 199295 war brutally impoverished and deeply ethnically divided, representing a critical and strategic case for the examination and understanding of the dynamics of mobilization in such divided societies. Despite difficult circumstances for civic-based collective action, social mobilizations in the country have grown in size, number and intensity in recent years. Marked by citizen demand for accountable governance, responsive urbanism, and access to basic human rights, these protests have been driven by economic, social and political problems which cut across religious and ethnic divides. Examining the variation in spatial and social scale of contention, the book investigates movements formation, their organizational structures and networking strategies and advances research on divided societies and social movements.
This volume will be of interest to scholars and researchers of Southeastern Europe and those examining political dissent, social movements and mobilization in divided societies, as well as practitioners in civil society, grassroots groups and political activists.
Chiara Milan is Marie Skodowska-Curie Fellow at the Centre for Southeast European Studies of the University of Graz, Austria. She holds a PhD in Political and Social Sciences from the European University Institute. Prior to joining the Centre for Southeast European Studies, she worked at the Scuola Normale Superiore (Italy) and the Robert Schuman Center for Advanced Studies. Her research interests include social movements and contentious politics, nationalism, ethnicity, citizenship and migration, with a specific focus on Southeastern Europe. On these topics, she has published articles in journals and chapters in edited volumes.
Southeast European Studies
Series Editor: Florian Bieber
The Balkans are a region of Europe widely associated over the past decades with violence and war. Beyond this violence, the region has experienced rapid change in recent times though, including democratization, economic and social transformation. New scholarship is emerging which seeks to move away from the focus on violence alone to an understanding of the region in a broader context drawing on new empirical research.
The Southeast European Studies Series seeks to provide a forum for this new scholarship. Publishing cutting-edge, original research and contributing to a more profound understanding of Southeastern Europe while focusing on contemporary perspectives, the series aims to explain the past and seeks to examine how it shapes the present. Focusing on original empirical research and innovative theoretical perspectives on the region, the series includes original monographs and edited collections. It is interdisciplinary in scope, publishing high-level research in political science, history, anthropology, sociology, law and economics and accessible to readers interested in Southeast Europe and beyond.
For more information about this series, please visit: www.routledge.com/Southeast-European-Studies/book-series/ASHSER1390
Rethinking Serbian-Albanian Relations
Figuring out the Enemy
Edited by Aleksandar Pavlovi Gazela Pudar Drako and Rigels Halili
Post-Socialist Political Graffiti in the Balkans and Central Europe
Mitja Velikonja
The Politics of Memory of the Second World War in Contemporary Serbia
Collaboration, Resistance and Retribution
Jelena ureinovi
Social Mobilization Beyond Ethnicity
Civic Activism and Grassroots Movements in Bosnia and Herzegovina
Chiara Milan
First published 2020
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
and by Routledge
52 Vanderbilt Avenue, New York, NY 10017
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
2020 Chiara Milan
The right of Chiara Milan to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by her in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe.
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Milan, Chiara, author.
Title: Social mobilization beyond ethnicity : civic activism and grassroots movements in Bosnia and Herzegovina / Chiara Milan.
Description: Abingdon, Oxon ; New York, NY : Routledge, 2020. |
Series: Southeast European studies | Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2019036287 (print) | LCCN 2019036288 (ebook) | ISBN 9780815387022 (hardback) | ISBN 9781351174244 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: Bosnia and HerzegovinaEthnic relations. | Bosnia and HerzegovinaSocial conditions21st century. | Social movementsBosnia and Herzegovina. | Cultural pluralismBosnia and Herzegovina.
