Øyvind Seim

Junior Visiting Fellow in the cluster Inequalities in the context of social transformation processes (focus on Southeast and Central Europe)

Rural-urban dimensions of social inequality and exclusion in Southeastern Europe (case-study: Bosnia and Herzegovina): The historical continuities from pre-war Yugoslavia/Bosnia and Herzegovina.

While there is an abundance of literature related to the political history of the fall of Yugoslavia, this research project explores the political consequences of the emergence of a socially stratified Bosnian society towards the end of communism. It discusses the impact of uneven rural-urban development in pre-war Bosnia for the electoral patterns in the first multi-party elections in 1990. The link between social inequality and nationalist mobilization ahead of the war in 1992 is analyzed. A question asked is if Bosnia and Herzegovina’s “failed modernization” was among the preconditions for its “failed democratization” from 1990, or if this rather was related to Bosnia’s cultural transformation and the ideological/cultural exclusion of the rural-related areas and social layers during communism. The historical continuities and discontinuities to the post-war period are searched for, both regarding electoral patterns and current EU-attitudes.