Urban peace, a spatial approach: In search for peacescapes in the post-war city of Brčko

Résumé 0

This paper presents exploratory research in developing spatial approaches to peacebuildingin post-conflict cities. While studies of post-war cities usually focus on past violence and continuous divisions, we in addition look at spaces where the coming together of people from different ethno-national groups is unproblematic. To understand the different dynamics in these spaces we draw on Björdahl’s distinction between war- and peacescapes and Bollen and Brand’s distinction between socio-fugal and socio-petal spaces. In the Bosnian city of Brčko, war monuments commemorating the (para)military formations of each of the three ethnic groups mark central space in an exclusive fashion through the use of mutually exclusive symbols. These symbols serve the different nation-building projects in this divided city and reinforce ethnic divisions. While presented as popular will, ethno-nationalist narratives of nation-building are elitist, masculinist and militaristic and do not speak for all people. In particular younger people, born after the war, seek for everyday (spatial) experiences beyond the war. This paper seeks therefore to go beyond the elite narrative of ethno-national identities and the marking of territory accordingly in post-war Bosnia. Our research is interested in spaces that escape the ethno-nationalist logic and that can tell a counter-narrative of post-war cities.