“Societies are built and destroyed EXCLUSIVELY through science and education”

Prof. dr. TOMISLAV TADIĆ - Professor of Social Sciences and Sociology [Bosnia and Herzegovina]

GENERATION OF LIVED HISTORY

The war does not end with the cessation of the conflict. Survivors continue to carry it deep inside them. The way post-war society relates to war affects individuals and shapes transgenerational memory.

• How has the generation that lived in Bosnia and Herzegovina and the region during the wars in the former Yugoslavia – and especially during the genocide in Srebrenica – experienced and shaped this history in the past 30 years: through personal memories, reflections, but also through narratives in the media, films, books, textbooks and rituals of remembrance?

"These are generations that have not overcome the so-called “social and cultural trauma”. Cultural trauma is constantly reproduced through everything mentioned in the question, from which, in the natural course of things, we come to deeper segregation in society. New generations are faced with the so-called phenomenon of “naturalization of cultural trauma” – trauma is spoken of naturally and the attitude towards it is taken as one might have towards things that we directly encounter in the world around us (tree, river, car, etc.). Public policies in BiH are in the function of constant retraumatization of the citizens."

A GENERATION BORN IN HISTORY (THOSE BORN IN 1995)

Thirty years later, we are once again witnessing the shaping of history amidst political manipulations of narratives. That is why transgenerational memory is required to carry a culture of remembrance and responsibility to the truth – in the name of future generations who must learn how peace is built and preserved.

• How does a generation born in the year of the Srebrenica genocide today understand this history? And how did growing up in this heritage shape their sense of identity, memory, and responsibility?

"The new generations in BiH are, at the level of symbolic capital, deeply attached to their history and it forms an important part of their identity. Responsibility for society and the state is a completely different topic and this is lacking in Bosnia and Herzegovina at all levels. The infrastructure of a knowledge-based society must be created and left to the young people, who, in an exclusive sense, can speak of the future and prosperity."

TRANSGENERATIONAL MEMORY DYNAMICS (1995-2025)

Society in Bosnia and Herzegovina is still marked by war traumas. Prevailing ethno-national policies keep citizens in fear, under constant threat of a new war – for their own interests. Politics has instrumentalized trauma.

• How – and whether – generations from Bosnia and Herzegovina, and the regions that lived through the wars in the former Yugoslavia, especially the events of 1995, and the generation born that same year have shaped mutual understanding of the past? To what extent are their views aligned today – and how do they differ?

"In Bosnia and Herzegovina, there are three versions of collective memory that are opposed. Three experiences of one event. Proliferated and ardent nationalism makes it impossible to confront one's own past, and as long as one society does not confront one's own past, there are no fundamental prerequisites for progress. Sociological studies, such as the European Value Study, clearly show that at the level of political ideology, by means of religious nationalism, citizens and peoples distance themselves from each other. It should also be noted here that the main creators of such an environment are public policies. The term public policy has its clear and precise meaning, and is not an abstraction. These are the leading politicians of the last thirty years."

REGIONAL FUTURE: TRANSGENERATIONAL MEMORY, HERITAGE OR TRAUMA (2025-2055)

Thirty years after the war, ethnic identity still dominates the civic. In post-war society, the structure of ethnically divided space often makes civic initiatives impossible, as they are automatically attributed an ethnic sign.

• How could political, social, educational and cultural development in Bosnia and Herzegovina – and more broadly in the region – affect how transgenerational memory will be preserved, reinterpreted or denied in the next 30 years?

"Building an environment of intelligent space according to the principles of “value-neutral” scientific optics, especially in the field of humanities and social sciences. Establishing facts, going through a complex process of self-confrontation, and building society on the basis of science. Societies are built and destroyed EXCLUSIVELY through science and education. Responsible public policies must emphasize this issue in a determining sense. Through the educational framework, arrive at a general axiological structure of society in relation to which the institutions of the state are then gradually configured."

GLOBAL FUTURE: TRANSGENERATIONAL MEMORY, INDIFFERENCE OR REVISIONISM (1995-2025-2055)

In the modern world, geopolitics is rapidly conditioning historical narratives and transgenerational memory – openly trading influence in conflicts and party choices through daily-political revisionism.

• How could global political disruptions, conflicting international historical narratives, and changing norms on justice and human rights shape the ways in which knowledge of wartime events from Bosnia and Herzegovina, and the region will be transmitted, challenged, or withheld across generations over the next 30 years?

"Bosnia and Herzegovina is a small society that, by the nature of the modern way of life (the process of hyperglobalization), is affected by the tendencies of global power relations of key social macro-actors. In this respect, too, we return to the fundamental principles of education and science, within which a high level of humanization of the social world and social facts can be achieved. In BiH, there is no motive to do such a thing and therefore it can be said that in the future we will be faced with new schisms within which global conflicts will be excuses for perpetuating "local evil" at the ideological and symbolic level."



The opinions and insights expressed in this text reflect solely the views of the author. We publish these contributions to encourage reflection and open space for diverse perspectives on the topic of transgenerational memory in Bosnia and Herzegovina and the wider region.