Vom ‚Paradies‘ in den Krieg

Individuelle Wahrnehmungs- und Deutungsmuster gesellschaftlicher Übergangs- und Zerfallsprozesse

Abstract

This article is using the example of former Yugoslavia to show that for a number of reasons, above all the nationalisms to which they give rise, political transformation processes come under pressure and undergo an implosion in the form of warfare. It focuses on individual perspectives of the violent disintegration to get knowledge about the practices of people along different criteria like age, gender or ethnic belonging. It is shown that individual perceptions played significant roles in the previous system: First, attitudes toward the Socialist past are significant of economic or social conditions of the people; second, there is a growing nostalgia for the past; and, third, politics is coloured by more ore less unsuccessful attempts by both elites and populations to deal not only with the economic situation but also with past abuses. Focusing on the level of individuals – who are always dependent on the socio- political circumstances of a society – it is possible to describe the gap between the political and individual levels of transformation in a complex way.