Newcomers and Locals. Invisible Boundaries Among Inhabitants of a Divided City in the Balkans Cover Image

Newcomers and Locals. Invisible Boundaries Among Inhabitants of a Divided City in the Balkans
Newcomers and Locals. Invisible Boundaries Among Inhabitants of a Divided City in the Balkans

Author(s): Marzena Maciulewicz
Subject(s): Politics and society, Culture and social structure , Demography and human biology, Nationalism Studies, Migration Studies, Inter-Ethnic Relations
Published by: Instytut Slawistyki Polskiej Akademii Nauk
Keywords: Mitrovica; divided city; field research; migration; neighbour; local community; inhabitants;

Summary/Abstract: Research on divided cities in the Balkans focuses mostly on ethnic/national divisions. Is this perspective, however, truly viable and sufficient for the description of post-conflict cities in the Balkans? The question is posed not only because of the fact that every city is somehow divided or fragmented. More noteworthy, and not widely known, is the fact that the unstable structure of a city’s population is much more complex with its intergroup relations becoming much more complicated – a fact commonly disregarded due to the importance assigned to ethnic/national rifts which have dominated the narrative of the divided city. Underestimating the importance of other relations within society and the dynamics of a highly changeable social structure, one cannot uncover the actual nature of intergroup relations in a divided city.

  • Issue Year: 2019
  • Issue No: 8
  • Page Range: 203-220
  • Page Count: 18
  • Language: English