Reconstituting identity and history in post-war Mostar, Bosnia-Herzegovina

Abstract

The significance of intercultural relations in the construction--and destruction--of shared urban space in cities worldwide, has assumed a new level of intensity in the current postcolonial, post-Soviet and 'post-modernist' era. Crucially, the 'popular', public, media and political reactions to such increased intensity in 'identity politics', 'ethnic conflict' and the reassertion of 'other cultures' has been, and continues to be either stereotypical or consumerist, in most cases oversimplified, and in many culturally illiterate. Such severe shortcomings in our understanding and ability to find adequate responses to the complex material and meaningful realities of cultural identities and intersections can also be found in academic and intellectual interventions, as in such constructs as the 'Clash of Civilisations' thesis. In positive contrast, this paper by Carl Grodach demonstrates the careful unravelling of complexity, diversity, contestation and contradictions involved in the reconstruction of symbolic urban spaces after violent conflict, and the allied processes of cultural reinterpretation, political reconfiguration and material revaluation which accompany it. The paper analyses the reconstruction and redevelopment of the 16th-century historic centre of Mostar, Bosnia-Herzegovina, following the Bosnian Wars of 1992-1995. Reconstruction efforts centre around Stari Most, the 16th-century Ottoman bridge destroyed by Bosnian Croat military in 1993. In Mostar, both international and local organizations are in the process of reinterpreting Bosnia's legacy of Ottoman city spaces. This research and analysis illuminates how such spaces can be central to contemporary projects to redefine group identities and conceptions of place. It provides insight into the ways various groups are attempting to reshape outside perceptions of the city--and Bosnia's ethnic conflict--to articulate a new definition of local identity and ethnic relations and to remake a stable tourist economy through Mostar's urban spaces.