Conversations with Bosnian Youth: From the Youth Relay Race to the Successor Generation Initiative^*

Abstract

Youth and their experiences, opinions and attitudes in post-war Bosnia and Herzegovina (hereafter BiH) have typically been left unexamined by both academics and policy makers. Nor is there much attention paid to historical analysis of youth who lived in the socialist period, which could shed some light on the mentality of young generations in present-day BiH. This article provides a historical view of socialist youth in Tito's era, with a special focus on BiH in the late 1980s. The second section provides a survey of how young people live in one of the Yugoslav successor states, BiH, examining the continuity and discontinuity of socio-political and ideological conditions in which youth lived in socialist Yugoslavia. The third section looks at the relationship between youth and the international community, the dynamics of which shed light on common features of both pre- and post-war BiH. Specifically, it will examine the internationally funded and organized “Successor Generation Initiative” (SGI) youth program, which aimed to educate youth in democratic values and develop their leadership skills.

The Local Workforce of International Intervention in the Yugoslav Successor States: ‘Precariat’ or ‘Projectariat’? Towards an Agenda for Future Research

“…Gordana Božić, for instance, comments with reference to BiH: 'Those young men and women, often in their teens, working as language assistants for the international organizations were the first to cross to "the other side" during and after the conflict.' 33 Božić argues that these early inter-ethnic crossings of boundaries were largely a pragmatic choice based on economic reasons rather than a performative demonstration of multi-ethnic idealism: 'Getting or protecting a job, and not their "natural" predisposition to ethnic tolerance, was the main force in overcoming or suppressing their fear and distrust felt towards the members of other ethnic groups'. 34 This is not to say that, in narratives with a longer perspective, workers who had been crossing inter-ethnic boundaries at these times would necessarily narrate their actions as having been solely economically motivated.…”

“…33 Božić argues that these early inter-ethnic crossings of boundaries were largely a pragmatic choice based on economic reasons rather than a performative demonstration of multi-ethnic idealism: 'Getting or protecting a job, and not their "natural" predisposition to ethnic tolerance, was the main force in overcoming or suppressing their fear and distrust felt towards the members of other ethnic groups'. 34 This is not to say that, in narratives with a longer perspective, workers who had been crossing inter-ethnic boundaries at these times would necessarily narrate their actions as having been solely economically motivated. 35 Three of the former interpreters I interviewed near Banja Luka who had been working for British forces in the first few years after Dayton, for instance, considered that the work had given them insights into alternative ways that political and social relations in BiH could be organized, and implied that their voices and views were marginalized in Republika Srpska society as a whole.…”