Bridging the macro with the micro in conflict analysis: Structural simplification as a heuristic device

Abstract

This chapter presents a theoretical argument that looking at how some grand matters of politics are simplified for practical use on the street is necessary to adequately understand how ordinary Serbs and Croats (and to a limited extent, Muslims) were transformed into enemies of their neighbors, workmates, and covillagers in the havoc wrought in Bosnia-Herzegovina between 1992 and 1995. Locals’ shifting attitudes toward consanguinal identity, expressions of greeting, and dressing patterns are found to be examples of everyday practices through which perceived differences in civilization, competitive ideas of statehood, and macroconstructions of group identity produce ethnic conflict. A broad conclusion is that attention to localized manifestations of the macropolitical will yield more comprehensive understanding in analyses of ethnic conflict.

Citation

Keles, F. (2008), "Bridging the macro with the micro in conflict analysis: Structural simplification as a heuristic device", Fleishman, R., Gerard, C. and O'Leary, R. (Ed.) Pushing the Boundaries: New Frontiersin Conflict Resolution and Collaboration (Research in Social Movements, Conflicts and Change, Vol. 29), Emerald Group Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 55-69. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0163-786X(08)29003-8