Understanding Bosnian <i>Komšiluk</i> : A Study of Neighbourhood Dynamics and Violence

The 1990s war in Bosnia and Herzegovina was a top-down political project aimed at dividing the multiethnic state and it was characterized by neighbourhood violence. Following the war, scholars focused on understanding the meaning and significance of komšiluk (neighbourliness) in Bosnian culture, particularly in relation to how friendly neighbourly relations turned violent during the ethnic conflict. These scholarly debates have contributed to a better understanding of komšiluk, although it has typically been presented as a stable institution, often negotiated along an interethnic axis, and viewed as a concept that persisted unchanged over time, with near-universal characteristics throughout Bosnia. This paper aims to challenge these generalizations. First, I will review and discuss the existing literature on neighbourliness and neighbourhood violence in Bosnia to address theoretical and methodological concerns in the study of such violence in Bosnia and elsewhere. Second, drawing on findings from my microhistorical study of neighbourliness and neighbourhood violence in Bosanski Novi, I will examine how interethnic solidarity between neighbours broke down after the onset of violence, rather than preceding it. I will argue that, instead of assuming that intergroup (interethnic) divisions inevitably defined relations between neighbours, scholars should investigate these ruptures at the interpersonal level, where they take place, in order to first understand how solidarity between neighbours was lived on a day-to-day basis, and then how and why it was demobilized during the interethnic conflict of the 1990s. © 2025 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.