Drawing on the continuum: a war and post-war political economy of gender-based violence in Bosnia and Herzegovina

Abstract

Current understandings of why and how gender-based violence continues beyond the end of conflict remain siloed along theoretical and disciplinary lines. Recent scholarship has addressed the neglected structural dimension when examining the incidence and variation of post-conflict gender-based violence. In particular, continuum of violence and feminist political economy perspectives have offered accounts of gender-based violence during and after conflict. However, these approaches overlook how war and postwar economic processes interact over time and co-constitute the material basis for the continuation of gender-based violence. The war and postwar political economy perspective that we leverage examines critically the distinction, both in theory and practice, between global and local dynamics, and between formal and informal actors in post-conflict societies. Exposing these neglected structural and historical interconnections with evidence from post-conflict Bosnia and Herzegovina, we demonstrate that the material basis of genderbased violence is a cumulative result of political and socioeconomic dynamics along the war-to-peace trajectory. Our findings point to the need to be attentive to the enduring material consequences of interests and incentives formed through war, and to the impact of postwar global governance ideologies that transform local conditions conducive to genderbased violence.

Social Work and Domestic Violence in Croatia Through a Gendered Lens

“…Kristen R. Ghodsee (2018) illustrates how the transition from socialism to capitalism in the former Eastern Bloc worsened women's economic independence and work conditions. While her arguments are not directly tied to the former Yugoslav region, similar points are made by Kostovicova, Bojicic-Dzelilovic and Henry (2020), who explain in detail how the post-war period, coupled with neoliberal policies, has produced new and extreme forms of inequality, especially detrimental to women. Writing from the US perspective, both Goodmark (2013Goodmark ( , 2018 and Jaffe (2021) identify the problem of shrinking state social services and individualising the issue of violence by placing the burden of care onto private enterprises and civil society.…”

“…The transition period from socialism to capitalism exacerbated the social, political, and economic inequalities facilitated by the wartime reallocation of assets (see Lóránd, 2015;Čepo, 2020) and resources that continued in the post-war period (Kostovicova, Bojicic-Dzelilovic and Henry, 2020). More precisely, as Kostovicova et al (2020: 6) argue: "Abundant evidence in feminist political economy studies shows how post-war economic recovery through neoliberal transition reproduces conditions of poverty such as joblessness and restricts access to social welfare for women and men alike.…”

“We are Forgotten”: Forced Migration, Sexual and Gender-Based Violence, and Coronavirus Disease-2019

“…The continuum of violence has been used in studies of sexual violence, interpersonal violence, and conflict and peace as a metaphor to consider the wide range of gender-based violence ( Kostovicova et al, 2020 ). It offers scope to enable us to think about continuity and change of circumstances shaping continued SGBV exposure.…”

Feminist Security Studies in Europe: Beyond Western Academics’ Club

“…The few exceptions seem to be studies on Europe's recent conflicts. These focus on domestic violence in politically contested Northern Ireland (Doyle and McWilliams 2019) and on gender-based and sexual violence during and after war in South-Eastern Europe (Kostovicova et al 2020;Meznaric 2019;Žarkov 2007;Subotić and Zaharijević 2018).…”