Theorising ‘Good Personhood’ in Rural Kosovo: Inconspicuous Coexistence and Local Serb Responses to Security and Identity Dilemmas

Francesco Trupia

doi:10.53779/hyqo7008

Abstract

This paper explores the everyday experiences, perceptions, and practices of Kosovo Serbs residing in the rural fabric of Southeast Kosovo with regard to security-related issues. Building on previous qualitative social research conducted in Central Kosovo, it particularly investigates how local responses of ordinary Serbs reflect a certain pragmatic performativity in the face of Kosovo Albanians. In-depth interviews and focus groups were held with locals, while field observation was conducted to construct locally nuanced knowledge about the relations between ordinary Serbs, their identity, and the surrounding landscape. Similar to the Central Kosovo study’s findings, the results confirm that in Southeast Kosovo, local Serbs neither displayed nor unfolded forms of vernacularism or disloyalty toward Kosovo Albanians. Conversely, they were found reflecting on potential creative solutions for tackling poverty and underdevelopment in the hope of avoiding replications of post-1999 Kosovo War ideologies emanated by respective national media coverages and political rhetoric. Moreover, it is argued that security experts have de facto overlooked untapped processes of present-day interethnic coexistence and resilience between Serbs and Albanians in the rural fabric by largely giving salience to the tense atmosphere in the Serb-majority urban clusters of North Kosovo. In fact, results also show that Kosovo Serbs pragmatically perform an account of quotidian practices for restoring a sense and self-image of ‘personhood’ in the eyes of the ‘ethnic other’. Employing a research approach that aimed at avoiding unnecessary ethnicisation, this paper sheds light on a peace potential and true civic responsibility that emerged spontaneously from Kosovo Serb voices. Overall, the paper lays the ground for debating the notion of ‘personhood’ as a lens through which to unravel inconspicuous yet present interethnic coexistence in post-conflict Kosovo.

Highlights

Granted that in North Kosovo, the Serbian community remains entangled in a Belgradesponsored parallel regime system (Meaker, 2017), this paper focuses knowingly on two Serbmajority rural areas located geographically in the region known as ‘the South of the Ibar River’ in the attempt to explore spontaneous desire and quotidian aspirations of reconciliation that emerge from the realm of everyday life
This previous study1 will be taken into consideration of this paper in order to advance a comparative analysis of how a similar articulation of identity negotiations is enacted pragmatically by local Serbs attempting to tackle everyday issues outside the much-debated scenario in North Kosovo
The paper builds upon a round of in-depth interviews and one focus group organised within three Serb-majority rural localities in the district of Gjilani/Gnilan (Southeast Kosovo) compared with previously conducted fieldwork in the district of Prizreni/Prizen (Central Kosovo)

Summary

Methodology

In attempting to rethink a defiant and ethnocentrically informed assumption of the Serbian– Albanian division in the contemporary social fabric of Kosovo, this paper looks methodologically at the realm of everyday life. The paper builds upon a round of in-depth interviews and one focus group organised within three Serb-majority rural localities in the district of Gjilani/Gnilan (Southeast Kosovo) compared with previously conducted fieldwork in the district of Prizreni/Prizen (Central Kosovo) This information is specified in order to better convey contextual information of Serb-inhabited rural areas. During the in-depth interviews, the aforementioned ‘good personhood’ was strategically proposed to all interviewees with the sole intent of avoiding any unnecessary ethnicisation In this regard, it was methodologically paramount to listen to personal takes regarding subsequently quotidian actions of ethnic Serbs in the attempt to give potential respondents the chance to speak up about broader themes spontaneously emerging from below (emic approach). Both before and following this adjustment, interviewees immediately associated the notion of ‘good personhood’ beyond the sphere of politics by endowing themselves with a normative tool by which describing community matters and aspects of their everyday life and identity dilemma

Securing Kosovo from Within

Repairing and Restoring Personhood in Rural Kosovo

Findings

Conclusion