A Physcialist Theory of Managing Impediments to Democracy and Peace Building in the Balkans Cover Image

A Physcialist Theory of Managing Impediments to Democracy and Peace Building in the Balkans
A Physcialist Theory of Managing Impediments to Democracy and Peace Building in the Balkans

Author(s): Rory Conces
Subject(s): Ethics / Practical Philosophy, Political Philosophy, Social Philosophy, Government/Political systems, Inter-Ethnic Relations, Peace and Conflict Studies
Published by: Udruženje za filozofiju i društveno-humanistička istraživanja “Eidos”
Keywords: Bosnia and Herzegovina; Kosovo; Deliberative Democracy; Peace Building; Democracy Building; Deliberative Engagement; Ethno-Nationalist; Evocative Objects; Evocativity Matrix; Matrix; Civic Design;

Summary/Abstract: The post-conflict societies of Bosnia and Kosovo continue to be plagued by the deleterious effects of ethno-nationalism and ethnic enclaves. Unfortunately, this mix impedes both democracy and peace building within these Balkan countries. One way to promote such building is for these enclaves to collapse, thereby allowing multiethnic societies to develop. This essay proposes that enclaves be dealt with physically by ridding them of those evocative objects that help to create and maintain enclaves. By getting physical in this way, however, we find ourselves in a dilemma, caught on the horns of legality and expediency. Yet there is a promising path between the horns that involves civic design. This essay offers a physicalist theory of managing these impediments to democracy and peace building, beginning with four hypotheses, followed by an abstraction and mathematization in the form of a matrix, a dilemma arising from

  • Issue Year: 2019
  • Issue No: 3
  • Page Range: 107-136
  • Page Count: 30
  • Language: English