{"id":141077,"date":"2016-10-26T14:51:09","date_gmt":"2016-10-26T13:51:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.recom.link\/reconciliation-answer-asking-right-questions-2\/"},"modified":"2020-04-18T02:49:36","modified_gmt":"2020-04-18T01:49:36","slug":"reconciliation-answer-asking-right-questions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.recom.link\/mk\/reconciliation-answer-asking-right-questions\/","title":{"rendered":"If Reconciliation Is the Answer, Are We  Asking the Right Questions?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>By Stef\u00a0 Jansen<\/strong><br \/>\nUniversity of Manchester, United Kingdom<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>ABSTRACT<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>This article critically examines the normative, liberal assumptions that most frequently underlie scholarly, activist, and policy calls for reconciliation in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Rather than measuring how reconciliation is progressing, I suggest we ask ourselves whose reconciliation is being desired here: by whom, for whom, and for what? Which important alternative questions remain unasked and which latent answers are ignored or downplayed in the process? Particular attention is paid to the ways in which liberal reconciliation discourse tends to depoliticize<br \/>\nquestions of justice.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<br \/>\n<strong>Introduction<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<br \/>\nThe concerns most frequently underlying scholarly, activist, and policy approaches to justice in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) presume a normative, liberal notion of inter-national reconciliation: \u201cHow to reconcile people in<br \/>\nBiH?\u201d or, \u201cHow is reconciliation in BiH advancing?\u201d The urgency with which such concerns are formulated, and their visibility in domestic and outside public spheres, reflect programmatic and funding priorities of foreign<br \/>\nintervention. Ever since I began ethnographic research in the post-Yugoslav states in 1996\u2014first in Serbia, then in Croatia, and then in BiH, where most of my work has been conducted during the last decade\u2014I have felt<br \/>\nuncomfortable with these priorities, even if I have sometimes actively taken part in initiatives that could be classified as reconciliation work. It is not just that the ways in which reconciliation is promoted demand the downplaying<br \/>\nof pain, anger and desire for retribution in ways I find hard to swallow, but I have always sensed that this approach also constitutes a particular problematic and depoliticizing liberal political project. Thus, while I sympathize with the sincere and noble intentions of many people who are working towards inter-national reconciliation\u2014and while I sometimes join them in their efforts\u2014I have long felt uneasy with the long-term implications I discerned for the politics of justice in BiH and beyond.<\/p>\n<div data-canvas-width=\"336.33676954732505\"><\/div>\n<div data-canvas-width=\"336.33676954732505\"><\/div>\n<p>(This article has been published <a href=\"https:\/\/brock.scholarsportal.info\/journals\/SSJ\/article\/view\/1045\/1015\">in &#8220;Studies in Social Justice&#8221;) <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By Stef\u00a0 Jansen University of Manchester, United Kingdom &nbsp; ABSTRACT &nbsp; This article critically examines the normative, liberal assumptions that&#8230; ","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":179199,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[612],"tags":[1993,1994,1995],"class_list":["post-141077","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-612","tag-recom-exclusives-mk","tag-reconciliation-mk","tag-stef-jansen-2-mk"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v25.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>If Reconciliation Is the Answer, Are We Asking the Right Questions? 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