‘Who sows hunger, reaps rage’: on protest, indignation and redistributive justice in post-Dayton Bosnia-Herzegovina

Twenty Years After Dayton: Bosnia-Herzegovina (Still) Stable and Explosive

“…However, access to these jobs depends on the ability and willingness to get involved into clientist networks, created and maintained most of the times through family ties and party connections (Kurtović 2015). With the political parties being dominated by ethno-nationalists this creates a further opportunity for the latter to project themselves as the protectors and providers for their constituents (McMahon and Western 2009).…”

“…Even amidst war, the nationalists were already preparing themselves for a new capitalist future, by ensuring that they would be the ones in charge of the process of privatisation (Kurtović 2015). In the post-conflict era this process was characterised by a persistent lack of transparency, where many public assets have been sold off without public bidding or through dubious deals (Slavnić et al 2013).…”

“…In particular, political parties penetrated and controlled industries and enterprises, whether state-owned or recently privatised (Divjak and Pugh 2008), rewarding their wartime allies with businesses, factories and access to natural resources in their territories of control (Tuathail and Dahlman 2004). Thus, political parties have indirectly managed and guided the process of privatisation to their advantage by appointing their own people to run those enterprises establishing peace-time local power structures led by war-time leaders (Pugh 2005, TI 2012, Kurtović 2015.…”

“…Post-war distribution of wealth has created in BiH a new class structure comprising a small and wealthy elite, next to a large pool of unemployed citizens, and an insecure middle class largely employed in the public sector, the remaining privatised and semi-privatised firms, and non-governmental and international organisations (Kurtović 2015).…”

Geographical testimony: a short history of a Yugoslav family

“…Hamdija Tito's grave has become a place for people to mourn the death of a country, and a place from which to send messages of condolence not only to father Tito, Yugoslavia's iconic leader, but to Yugoslavia itself. Citizens travel to Tito's grave to remember Yugoslavia and to mourn its collapse, as for many the ethno-nationalist neoliberal 'transition' era after Yugoslavia has meant general impoverishment, de-industrialisation, diminished democracy, and mass unemployment (see Bieber 2006, Arsenijevi 2011, 2014, Toal and Dahlman 2011, Jeffrey 2012, Helms 2013, Gordy 2015, Horvat and Štiks 2015, Hromadži 2015, Jansen 2015, Kurtovi 2015, Mujki 2015, Riding 2015b, 2016b.…”