Goran Basic

Definitions of Violence : Narratives of Survivors from the War in Bosnia and Herzegovina

Previous research on violence during the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina has resulted in a one-sided presentation of the phenomenon of “war violence.” Researchers have emphasized the importance of narratives in general but have not analyzed stories on war violence that were the product of interpersonal interaction and meaning-making activity. The aim of this article is to fill this knowledge gap by analyzing survivor narratives of the 1990s war in northwestern Bosnia. The focus is on analyzing interviewees’ descriptions of wartime violence and the discursive patterns that contribute to constructing the phenomenon of “war violence.” My analysis reveals an intimate relationship between how an interviewee interprets the biographical consequences of war violence and the individual’s own war experiences. All interviewees described war violence as something that is morally reprehensible. These narratives, from both perpetrators of violence and those subjected to violence, recount violent situations that not only exist as mental constructions but also live on even after the war; thus, they have real consequences for the individuals and their society.

Concentration Camp Rituals: Narratives of Former Bosnian Detainees

In the German camps during the Second World War, the aim was to kill from a distance, and the camps were highly efficient in their operations. Previous studies have thus analyzed the industrialized killing and the victims’ survival strategies. Researchers have emphasized the importance of narratives but they have not focused on narratives about camp rituals or analyzed postwar interviews as a continued resistance and defense of one’s self. This article tries to fill this gap by analyzing stories told by former detainees in concentration camps in the Bosnian war during the 1990s. This article aims to describe a set of recounted interaction rituals as well as to identify how these rituals are dramatized in interviews. The retold stories of humiliation and power in the camps indicate that there was little space for individuality and preservation of self. Nevertheless, the detainees seem to have been able to generate some room for resistance, and this seems to have granted them a sense of honor and self-esteem, not least after the war. Their narratives today represent a form of continued resistance.

Observed successful collaboration in social work practice: coherent triads in Swedish juvenile care

ABSTRACT The purpose of this study is to analyse observed situations of successful cooperation, even if it unfolds during shorter interaction sequences. The aim is to analyse how and when the actors within juvenile care in Sweden present successful cooperation, and which interactive patterns are involved in the construction of this phenomenon. Forming the empirical basis for this study are 119 field observations of organised meetings and informal meetings before and after organised meetings, during visits to youth care institutions in Sweden, social services offices, and the Swedish National Board of Institutional Care. In this study, markers are used to define successful cooperation in the empirical material, so that actors who belong to at least three different categories will be identified (coherent triad). The professional actors can also shape a coherent triad with young people or parents in cases where past conflicts arise. When some professionals create a distance from other professional partners, conflicts can be erased so as to generate new conditions for coherence of the triad. Construction and reconstruction of collaboration success is an ongoing, interactive process. Presentation of the proper interaction moral is created and re-created during interactions and appears in the myriad of everyday interactions.

Ethnic monitoring and social control: Descriptions from juveniles in juvenile care institutions

Previous research has emphasized the institutional racism in total institutions. Researchers have highlighted the importance of narratives but have not focused on narratives about ethnic monitoring and social control. This article tries to fill this gap by analysing stories related to descriptions of ethnic monitoring and social control as told by juveniles of non-Swedish ethnicity in Swedish juvenile care institutions. A juvenile’s ethnicity was highlighted by drawing attention to the staff’s monitoring and social control. Interviews elucidated the victimhood that non-Swedish juveniles portrayed in relation to the staff and/or Swedish juveniles. When juveniles of non-Swedish ethnicity described ethnic monitoring and social control, they generally distanced themselves from staff behaviour and portrayed a victim identity. In constructing their identity, juveniles sometimes used their ethnic background rhetorically when describing everyday situations in the institution. The juveniles portrayed a humiliated self through dissociation from the staff and through the descriptions that they were treated differently than Swedish juveniles.

Health Care, Ethnicity and War : Young Immigrants with War Experiences in Institutional Care in Sweden

The purpose of the study is (1) to analyze narratives of youth that have experienced war, taken refuge in Sweden, and taken into custody and placed in institutions; (2) to analyze the organization ...

Ideal victim and competition for victimhood in the stories of the survivors of the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina

Previous research on victimhood often presented a one-sided picture of the “victim” and the “perpetrator”. Researchers have emphasised the importance of narratives and they have focused on narratives about victimhood, but they have not analysed post-war interviews as an arena for the competition for gaining the status of victim. This paper tries to fill-in this gap through analysing stories of 27 survivors of the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina during the 1990s. The paper aims at describing the interviewees’ portrayal of “victimhood” as a social phenomenon, as well as to analyse those discursive patterns, which contribute to constructing the categories of a “victim” and a “perpetrator”. The research question is: How do the interviewees describe victimhood after the war? Within the dynamics that constructs the status of a “victim” and a “perpetrator” a competition for the role of a victim is noticeable after the war. All interviewees are eager to present themselves as victims, while at the same time they diminish the victim status of other categories. This situation can produce and reproduce competition for gaining the status of a victim, and, in this way, to reinforce collective demarcations that were played out so successfully during the war.Previous research on victimhood often has presented a one-sided picture of the “victim” and “perpetrator”. Researchers have emphasized the importance of narratives and they have focused on narratives about victimhood, but a researcher has not analyzed post-war interviews as a competition for victimhood. This article tries to fill this gap using stories told by survivors of the Bosnian war during the 1990s. I focus on describing the informants portrayal of “victimhood” as well as analysing those discursive patterns which contributed in constructing the category “victim” and ”perpetrator”. My research question is: How do the interviewees describe victimhood after the war? When, after the war, different actors claim this “victim” status, it sparks a competition for victimhood. All informants are eager to present themselves as victims while at the same time for the other categories victim status is downplayed. In this reproduction of competition for the victim role, all demarcations that were played out so successfully during the war live on.

Stories after the Bosnian War: Competition for Victimhood

Abstract in Undetermined The aim of this article is to analyze verbally portrayed experiences of 27 survivors of the 1990’s war in northwestern Bosnia. Focus lies on describing how the interviewees portray the social phenomenon of ”victimhood”, and to analyze discoursive patterns which contribute to constructing the cathegory ”victim”. When, after the war, different actors claim this ”victim” status it sparks a competition for victimhood. Cathegories appear and they are: ”the remainders” those who lived in northwestern Bosnia before, during and after the war; “the fugitives” those who driven into northwestern Bosnia during the war; “the returnees” those who returned after the war and “the diaspora” those who were driven out from northwestern Bosnia and remained in their new country. The competition between these cathegories seems to take place on a symbolic level. All interviewees want to portray themselves as ”ideal victims” but they are all about to loose that status. The returnees and the diaspora are losing status by receiving recognition from the surrounding community and because they have a higher economic status, the remainders are losing status since they are constantly being haunted by war events and the refugees are losing status by being presented as strangers and thus fitting the role of ideal perpetrators. It seems that by reproducing this competition for the victim role, all demarcations, which were played out so skillfully during the war, are kept alive. (Less)