| Study ID | 12 |
| Study title | State Capacities: Managing Floods, Challenging Ethnopolitcs in Bosnia and Herzegovina: A multimethod study of crisis framing in the city of Doboj |
| Study language | Bosnian |
| Institution(s) | – |
| Authors | Danijela Majstorović (PI) Zoran Vučkovac |
| Disciplines | Sociology Political sciences |
| Period | 2014-2016 |
| Geographical space | BiH |
| Abstract | The floods of May 2014 severely hit the entire Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) and the largest BiH city that suffered devastation was Doboj. Over 80% of the aid that Doboj received since May 2014 was obtained through international assistance and Doboj’s mayor, Obren Petrović, who ran in opposition to the official Republic of Srpska (RS) policy line of the dominant SNSD and their leader, Milorad Dodik. Our hypothesis was that a national catastrophe, although devastating for most people, was politically powerful enough to actually interject with the present order of governance in Dayton BiH by challenging this kind of ethnopolitics. To do so, we studied the relationships between ethnic identity construction, seen as primarily discursive and performative, and ethnopolitics, as the politics aiming at preserving the present Dayton logic and divisions, and crisis management after the May 2014 floods. The paper is a critical discourse analysis of available media texts on Doboj floods governance that emerged immediately following the crisis as well as affected people’s narratives in the postflood period reflecting on the situation 19 months after the floods. In this way, it was followed how media discourses reflected and shaped the thinking immediately upon the crisis, speaking and acting in the flood governance domain and prioritizing certain frames over others and how relevant social actors’ and affected people’s discourses reflected on floods governance and political action during the postflood recovery period in the city of Doboj. |
| Results | During the BiH floods, mayor Petrović stated how the RS government introduced military administration in Doboj after the floods because they “objected the pro-Bosnian politics and aid coming from the Federation of BiH”. This reveals that the entity structure, which for the past twenty years has not come up with an acceptable version and vision of BiH has for the most part cemented the Dayton-based political structure that came as a result of violence-driven migrations and ethnic cleansing. This is why is you are said to be “are pro BiH” or “pro-Bosnian” in most of the RS is understood as betrayal of Serbian nationalist interests and challenging ethnopolitics means ignoring, if not going against, the Daytonproposed entity structure as well as being pro-Bosnian. |
| Method description | Analysis of journal articles Focus groups with people who were directly affected by the floods Interviews with stakeholders in Doboj |
| Publications | None |
| Secondary analyses | None |
| Study type | Mandated research |
| Financed by | Mandating institution |
| Mandating institution(s) | University of Fribourg, Interfaculty Institute for Central and Eastern Europe, Regional Research Promotion Programme in the Western Balkans – RRPP, Bd de Pérolles 90, 1700 Fribourg |
| Progress | Finished |
| Start – end date | 01.10.2015 – 30.09.2016 |
| Data type | Qualitative data |
| Media | Digitalized documents |
| Available document types | Additional documentation concerning the data |
| Linked to | Dataset 12 – Državni kapaciteti: upravljanje poplavama |
| Remarks | Data language is Bosnian/Serbian/Croatian |
| Analysis unit | Individual Group |
| Mode of data collection | Face-to-face interview (CAPI, CAMI, PAPI, etc.) Focus group |
| Data collection instruments | Other |
| Number of cases | – |
| Sampling description | – |
| Available versions | 1.0 |
| Bibliographical citation | Danijela Majstorović, Zoran Vučkovac: Državni kapaciteti: upravljanje poplavama ili iskušavanje etnopolitike u Bosni i Hercegovini: multimetodska studija interpretiranja krize u gradu Doboju, 2015 [Dataset]. Distributed by DASS-BiH, Sarajevo. |
| Access category | Restricted |
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