SOCIO-CULTURAL CAPITAL AS THE BASIS OF WORKING STRATEGY OF HOUSEHOLD/FAMILY IN POST-CONFLICT SOCIETIES: THE EXAMPLE OF THE REPUBLIC OF SRPSKA AND THE NORTH OF KOSOVO

Abstract

This paper represents the result of a comparative research of socio-cultural capital features as the basis for working strategies of household/family in post-conflict societies of the former SFRY/Westem Balkan. Republic of Srpska and Kosovo* represent case studies due to a set of similarities which are inherent to those social frameworks, and certain specificities which are making them “original” cases in social researches. Our research results indicate a sort of re-traditionalization of the role of post­ war family members including their endeavour to maintain functionality and unity of family “at all costs” in societies of “high risk”. Besides, those results point to a set of other strategies that individuals and their households undertake in order to preserve “normality” of everyday life in societies which are facing the prevailing nationalistic ideologies twenty or fifteen years after the termination of the open armed conflicts, which “hinder” the establishment of peaceful conditions for life and work. In the first part of the paper, we are indicating the timeline of events being shaped by the two mentioned societies in the form of post-war societies in order to visualize the importance of socio­ cultural capital more clearly, as the condition to develop the working strategies of post­ war family households. Keywords', socio-cultural capital, household, post-conflict/post-war society, post-socialist transformation, Republic of Srpska, Kosovo*. 1. Post-conflict societies of the Republic of Srpska and Kosovo* Sociological approach to the understanding of their specificities Post-conflict society2 became a usual phrase for the characterization of societies that appeared by the disintegration/destruction of former SFRY; 1 Paper presented at International Scientific Conference Facing Social Traumas: A Challenge for Sociological Research, Faculty of Philosophy, within Ss. Cyril and Methodius University in Skopje, Skopje 23-