Gender, conflict, and social Capital: Bonding and bridging in war in the former Yugoslavia

The 1990s are marked by unprecedented mobilisation for armed conflict at the local or state level. With 44 countries, or 25 per cent of the world’s states at war during this period, the world experienced more violent conflict than ever before. Conflicts of the 1990s are often called new wars (Kaldor 1999; Duffield 2001) as they are importantly shaped by the processes of globalisation, structural changes in the world economy and politics. This chapter aims to contribute to gendered analyses of conflict and social capital by examining how the process of mobilisation of social capital for war or peace is gendered and context-specific. The author’s analysis also supports substantial empirical evidence that women-as-women organising in specific contexts promotes civic bridging links and supports a type of alternative politics that is embedded in cross-ethnic and cross-boundary trust and reciprocity. This type of links and communication are central to the reconciliation processes, conflict resolution, and post-conflict reconstruction. Further research and analysis is required to uncover other links and factors affecting these (gendered) processes in order to identify and support the ones which represent a resource for democracy and peace.

Citation:
Korac, M. (2008) ‘Gender, conflict, and social Capital: Bonding and bridging in war in the former Yugoslavia’ in Cox, Michaelene (ed.) Social Capital and Peace-Building: Creating and Resolving Conflict with Trust and Social Networks. London: Routledge. pp. 107-121.