One city in Bosnia-Herzegovina can be seen as a microcosm of a greater ethnic and religious conflict. The city of Mostar has drawn much attention from the international community not only because of its position in Bosnia but because of a small bridge over the Neretva River. This bridge has evolved into an international symbol of hope and reconciliation while at the same time embodying segregation and destruction. This thesis aims to analyse this old bridge in Mostar as a symbol of cultural intervention by the international community. The successes and failures that the bridge encompasses speak to the tumultuous time the international community at large has had in reunifying the war-torn city of Mostar and in extension the country of Bosnia. The bridge has become more than a path over water, but a reflection of the mood and culture of an entire city.

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Uppsatsens syfte har varit att undersöka intressenters motiv bakom återuppförandet av ett förstört kulturarv. Studien har haft Bosnienkriget som utgångspunkt, som varade mellan april 1992 till december 1995. Fokus har lagts på återuppbyggandet av bron Stari Most i Mostar ur olika intressenters perspektiv, vilka underliggande motiv de olika parterna haft och intressekonflikter dem emellan. Studien ämnar även undersöka hur och på vilket sätt Mostars invånare påverkades av brons återuppbyggnad. Material som relaterar till intressenterna studerades utifrån ett antal värdeaspekter, som ämnade underlätta identifieringen av motiv. Trots att den gemensamma målsättningen var att förena Mostars invånare över återuppförandet av Stari Most, har undersökningen bidragit till att identifiera flertalet underliggande motiv hos intressenterna. Det har även varit möjligt att påvisa att intressekonflikter funnits dem mellan, där vissa prioriterade ekonomiska fördelar som projektet kunde medföra, medan andra fokuserade på att bron skulle återfå sin sociala samt kulturella betydelse. Mostars invånare påverkades av att bron byggdes upp, däremot fanns differenser mellan de som bodde i nära anslutning till bron och de som bodde i angränsande områden. / The purpose of this study was to investigate different stakeholders motives behind rebuilding destroyed cultural heritage. The study has had the Bosnian war as its starting point, which lasted between April 1992 to December 1995. Focus has been on rebuilding the bridge Stari Most in Mostar, from the perspective of different stakeholders, their underlying motives and conflicts of interest between them. The study also aims to investigate how in what way the population of Mostar was affected by the reconstruction of the bridge. Material that relates to the different stakeholders was studied in relation to different values, which aimed to make the identification of underlying motives easier. Even though the common goal for the stakeholders was to unite the population of Mostar, has the study contributed to identify different underlying motives. It has also been possible to identify conflict of interests between stakeholders, where some prioritized the economic benefits the project could bring, while others focused on the bridge regaining its social and cultural significance. The people of Mostar was affected by the bridge being rebuilt, but there were significant differences between those who lived in close proximity to the bridge and those who lived in the surrounding area of the city.

Multiculturalism or cultural pluralism is a policy, ideal, or reality that emphasizes the unique characteristics of different cultures in the world, especially as they relate to one another in immigrant receiving nations. The word was first used in 1957 to describe Switzerland but first came into common currency in Canada in the late 1960s2. It quickly spread to other English- speaking and western developed countries.Although There is no clear link between the multiculturalism and the term that so called Balkanization, But this research tries to present the similar possibility of Multiculturalism discourse and Balkanization as a geopolitical term. In fact this research believes that   balkanization is The same idea of multiculturalism in practice, when it comes to the idea of state. On the other hand Vijay Parshad in his book Everybody was Kung Fu fighting  says that "I am interested in “how an investigation of kung fu can help us move from a limited multicultural framework into an antiracist, polycultural one.” This is the research and video that has been made about Bruce lee statue in Mostar, the divided city in Bosnia and Herzegovina", as a method of working in hyper- politicized society.

This paper evaluates the effectiveness of urban planning interventions in interrupting the degenerative socio-spatial cycle which perpetuates division in divided cities. To analyze the abilities of different types of urban planning projects to transform division, this paper implements a new system of classifying urban planning interventions in divided cities, delineating projects by their object, rather than by process. Under this system, urban planners pursue one of three objects: segregation, the creation of integrated spaces, and the transformation of divided space at a micro-spatial level. Applying this model to six urban planning projects in Belfast and Mostar from 1969 to 2008, this paper finds that segregation perpetuates inter-group conflict, the creation of integrated spaces separate from divided cities fails to impact such conflict by bypassing contested areas, and that symbolic micro-spatial projects have the potential to transform space to positively impact conflict.

abstract: Ethno-nationalist politicians and criminals in Mostar espoused a discourse of ethno-exclusionist sociocultural relations as a superstructure for the public in order to establish ethnocratic kleptocracies where they concealed their criminal colonization of residential and commercial property through manipulating the pre-Bosnian War discourse on property relations. This is not to argue that some or most of these politicians and criminals did not believe in their virulent nationalist rhetoric, but instead that the effects of the discourse created well-used pathways to personal, not community, wealth. Elites used the Yugoslav economic crisis and perceived past grievance to enflame growing tensions between ethnicities and social classes. I use Mostar as an object of analysis to examine the creation of Bosnian Croat and Bosniak ethnocratic regimes in this divided city. However, I focus more on the Bosnian Croat regime in the city because it envisioned Mostar as its capital, making the city the site of its political competition among factions. Even though ethno-nationalist politicians and criminals still hold a level of power in Mostar, the IC did succeed in instituting a high level of property restitution, which does not necessarily imply return, because the IC was able to impose rule of law when it acted in an organized manner. Also, the ethnocratic regimes were weakened due to regional economic and political factors that undercut the regimes' hold over the population. / Dissertation/Thesis / M.A. History 2013

abstract: Tourism is not always a lighthearted affair. Visitors are often attracted to places associated with dark and complex pasts, where communities host a wide range of lived experiences, memories and associations. While tourism has potential to facilitate progress and create opportunities, it may also emphasize a place’s hardships or its controversial history. For tourism development to be ethical and sustainable, it is vital to understand its community impacts, including how it may influence residents’ perceptions and wellbeing.This research investigated residents’ senses of affect and emotion within touristic spaces of Mostar, a re-emerging destination city in Bosnia and Herzegovina that experienced some of the worst physical destruction and human casualties during the Bosnian War of the 1990s. An interdisciplinary, multiple-methods approach employed qualitative and quantitative methods, including an intercept survey, resident interviews, participant observation, and autoethnography. In Part 1, construal level theory of psychological distance was applied in quantitative, survey-based research to understand how tourism may impact residents’ affective responses to local places. In Part 2, fourteen young adult residents were invited to experience their city as “tourists for a day,” visiting attractions alongside the researcher and reflecting upon their experiences via a three-stage interview process. The resulting article specifically explores the concept of affective atmospheres, drawing connections to interdependence theory. Part 3 employed a creative and introspective autoethnographic approach incorporating journaling, poetry and photography to examine the researcher’s own experiences and observations as a visiting researcher in a post-war city. This inquiry was inspired by works from cultural geography engaging non-representational theory and affect theory. These three discrete studies under a shared thematic umbrella allowed for an in-depth exploration of affect, emotion, and lived experiences within touristic spaces of a post-war, recovering city. Overall, findings suggest that residents perceive tourism as a generally positive force, fostering senses of pride and creating opportunities for the city to move on from the persistent social and economic repercussions of war. However, the social and affective impacts of war are deeply engrained within the fabric of the city, and tourism has the capacity to emphasize differences and discomforts amongst residents and visitors alike. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Community Resources and Development 2020

With its departure in the challenge of avoiding conflict-issues becoming politics, the present study merges the literatures on reconciliation and post-conflict politics, and asks why a difference in post-conflict political moderation can be observed in individuals. It uses questionnaire- and interview-material gathered in Mostar during spring 2013 to do a comparative case study, testing the hypothesis that reconciliation makes individuals more politically moderate with respect to war-related issues. Results in line with the hypothesis are found, and the relationship appears to be causal. However, the causal mechanism requires additional work, and the issue of confounders needs to be addressed by future studies to ensure robustness. In conclusion, with these caveats in mind, the answer to the question is that the level of reconciliation affects the levels of political moderation.

This study explores the relationship between international intervention and the ethnification of politics and seeks to explain the degree to which international involvement affects the degree of ethnification of politics. Deriving from explanations that suggest that the ethnification of politics is attributed to the greater interethnic trust facilitated through credible institutions, this study argues that the ethnification of politics is lower in cases where the greater involvement by the international intervention in local institution-building can be observed. Using the method of structure focused comparison, the suggested hypothesis is tested on two cities in Bosnia and Hercegovina – Mostar and Sarajevo. Data was collected through a manual empirical analysis and the tracing of historical institution-building actions by the international community in each city. The main finding shows relative support for the causal relationship; however, the observed causal mechanism is different to the expected one. This signals that the degree of international involvement in local institution-building processes cannot, in isolation, explain variation on the ethnification of politics. Thus, further research is needed to both identify additional causal factors and build the interaction effects that can explain the observed variation.