Wie die Gewalt der Jugoslawienkriege konzeptionalisieren? Wissenschaftliche Ansätze seit den 1990er Jahren
How to Conceptualize the Violence of the Yugoslav Wars? Scholarly Approaches Since the 1990s

Summary/Abstract: Abstract. Which concepts should we use to analyze the (post-)Yugoslav wars of the 1990s? Which approaches have been prevalent up to now? This paper offers an overview of possible approaches to these problems. Among others, it addresses the following questions: Should the enormous violence that took place be conceptualized as a by-product of the collapse of the socialist ethno-federal structure and the transformation of its institutions since 1989, which, from a global perspective, led to several wars in the post-socialist space? Or should the violence be understood as a particular product of Yugoslavia’s turbulent history in the 20th century? Is the so-called “ethnic-turn” that took place at the end of the 1980s really the key to understanding the violence? Or would it be better to focus on the inner dynamics which emerged in each of the different “sites of violence”, within the framework of new social and political circumstances? Finally, how should we conceptualize the complex relationship between the local dynamics that led to the violence and the influence of external (inter)national factors?

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