engleski

From Roots to Weeds - Adolescents' Notions of Belonging and Alienation

This paper explores the phenomena of "the Host" and "the Other" in the context of post-war Croatia. It interprets adolescents' sense of belonging and alienation and describes the construction of new social boundaries among youth. Furthermore, it contextualizes these phenomena in the political climate of the aftermath of the war in Croatia in the 1990s. The research draws on longitudinal fieldwork from 2002 to 2012 carried out in Croatia in war-affected regions bordering with Bosnia and Serbia and is based on detailed interviews and discussions with adolescent populations of different backgrounds (ethnic, religious and anguage minorities, immigrants and displaced persons). The paper argues that the sense of belonging and alienation can only be analysed through recourse to the war and to the way in which social space was shaped in its aftermath. It shows that belongingness is a contested site filled with conflicting subjectivities and imposed circumstances in different realities.

anthropology; ethnicity; boundaries; Croatia; youth

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