1. Constructing 'ideal victim' stories of Bosnian war survivors
- Author
-
Goran Basic
- Subjects
narrative ,Social psychology (sociology) ,victimhood ,Sociology and Political Science ,Bosnian ,Friedens- und Konfliktforschung, Sicherheitspolitik ,Peace and Conflict Research, International Conflicts, Security Policy ,perpetrator ,Erzählung ,Ideal (ethics) ,Sociology & anthropology ,Allgemeine Soziologie, Makrosoziologie, spezielle Theorien und Schulen, Entwicklung und Geschichte der Soziologie ,Sociology ,Political science ,Täter ,Bosnia ,offender ,Social work ,Social phenomenon ,Gender studies ,social integration ,Spanish Civil War ,lcsh:Sociology (General) ,post-war period ,politische Kriminalität ,language ,soziale Integration ,ddc:301 ,political criminality ,Krieg ,Social Psychology ,Politikwissenschaft ,lcsh:HM401-1281 ,Competition (economics) ,Nachkriegszeit ,Messung ,Narrative ,General Sociology, Basic Research, General Concepts and History of Sociology, Sociological Theories ,war ,Sociologi (exklusive socialt arbete, socialpsykologi och socialantropologi) ,crime ,Bosnia and Herzegovina ,war victim ,Sociology (excluding Social Work, Social Psychology and Social Anthropology) ,language.human_language ,Bosnien-Herzegowina ,Soziologie, Anthropologie ,ddc:320 ,victim ,Kriegsopfer ,measurement - Abstract
Previous research on victimhood during and after the Bosnian war has emphasized the importance of narratives but has not focused on narratives about victimhood or 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. In this analysis of the retold experiences of 27 survivors of the war in northwestern Bosnia, the aim is to describe the informants’ portrayal of “victimhood” as a social phenomenon as well as analyzing the discursive patterns that contribute to constructing the category “victim”. When, after the war, different categories claim a “victim” status, it sparks a competition for victimhood. All informants are eager to present themselves as victims while at the same time the other categories’ victim status are downplayed. In this reproduction of competition for the victim role, all demarcations that were played out so successfully during the war live on. War sociology – renewed analysis of ethnographic material from Bosnia
- Published
- 2015