Resilience Against Everyday Disillusion: Voices for Peacebuilding in Bosnia and Herzegovina

Abstract

Bosnia and Herzegovina is marred with ethnopolitics despite significant peacebuilding activities by the international community following the peace agreement signed in 1995. The post-Dayton mechanism, which is based on ethnic parity, benefits political elites who can maintain their power base, while people are disillusioned with the economic and political stalemate. This chapter aims to analyze people’s perception of the stalemate in Bosnia and Herzegovina and the resilience they have developed in this adverse situation. The questions to be addressed are how the current state of the country is perceived by the people; what problems they identify; and how they cope with or resist the status quo. Through narrative analysis of life stories, this chapter finds people’s disillusion, disappointment and helplessness. People identify corruption, nepotism, and nationalism as the major problems behind the country’s stagnation. However, they show their resilience through accommodative and assimilative coping measures. The accommodative measures include ignoring the reality or focusing on small blessings. The assimilative measure can manifest in social movements to change the adverse situation as seen in the country in the 2010s. Harnessing the latter type of resilience, the stalled peacebuilding process can be revitalized by the citizens.