During my studies at Malmö University, Sweden, I have been following the young people in Srebrenica, Bosnia and Herzegovina and their relations with donor agencies. The work resulted in a Minor Field Study and my MA thesis Negotiating Srebrenica – Relations between young people’s and donors’ experiences and initiatives.
Abstract
Since the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina in the 1990’s, Srebrenica has been used as a symbol for its violent history. This has made the donor attraction to the town high, but the donations are based on the preconceptions of Srebrenica in line with its violent history and do not correlate with the initiatives and experiences of young people living in Srebrenica.
This study is based on ethnographic material produced by fieldwork in Srebrenica and Sarajevo. It is focusing on the relations between the young people’s initiatives and experiences and the donors’ perceptions of these.
The presence of the donor agencies in Bosnia and Herzegovina is a distant one, where the people living in the country and the development workers seldom get to know each other. This produces an us—them dichotomy within which preconceived images and understandings are left unquestioned. The donor agencies have the power-to-define; if the young people want to work with a donor agency, they have to adapt to the pre-given definitions, rules, and guidelines that are based on and image of the town not related to the young people’s own perceptions of Srebrenica.
However, the young people are creating a Srebrenica worth living in and by doing so they are negotiating both the definitions of their own town and the power-to-define.
