Youth as geopolitical subjects: The case of mostar, bosnia and herzegovina

Abstract

From the mundane legacy of imperialism to more spectacular accounts of violence, geopolitical contestations permeate in numerous ways the landscapes of people’s everyday life. In a world dominated by geopolitical conflicts and tensions, what is the role of youth in these relations of force? How are youth geopolitically positioned? Are they simply victims of larger geopolitical struggles, or are they perhaps actively involved in them? This chapter addresses the question of the politics of childhood and youth through geopolitical lenses. Specifically, it aims to understand the ways young people become important geopolitical subjects when struggles over identity, territory, and domination are being waged. In order to do so, the chapter turns to the feminist geopolitics literature, as it provides a useful route to rethinking and reconceptualizing the notions of public and private, as well as the hierarchical scalar thinking that permeates many discussions of children and youth politics. The youth and geopolitics nexus is explored through young people’s notion of identity andbel nging with particular attention being given to schools as geopolitical sites. These theoretical discussions are followed by some empirical examples of the geopolitics of identity in the high schools of the post-conflict city of Mostar in Bosnia and Herzegovina