Abstract
This chapter on Kosovo offers a description of how Albanians and Serbs shape their social identities after conflict. Analyzing the construction of ethnic identities historically, it draws on social psychological literature to describe how identity content is negotiated now in light of Kosovo’s declaration of independence. For both groups, ethnic identity remains a central identity: perceived as primordial and heavily impeding intergroup relations. It overlaps with religious identity, although the relation is stronger for Serbs, for whom religion is as unchangeable as ethnic identity. New national identity differs in meaning: it conflates with ethnic identity for Albanians, while perceived as threatening to ethnic identity for Serbs. The chapter concludes by exploring the potential that Kosovar identity holds in reconciling these differences.
Correspondence concerning this chapter should be addressed to Edona Maloku, American University in Kosovo, Social Sciences Department, Shpetim Rrobaj str, nn, Germia Campus, 10 000, Prishtina, Kosovo; email: emaloku@auk.org.
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Notes
- 1.
Figures by KAS (2013) are from the Population Census 2011, which has been boycotted by Serbs in the northern part of Kosovo and partially boycotted by Serbs and Roma in the southern part of the country. Therefore, the minority representation has to be taken with caution (see European Centre for Minority Issues, ECMI Kosovo, 2013 for details).
- 2.
This figure also includes the post-conflict period, when Serbs were killed on retaliating.
- 3.
Participants were asked to rate the extent to which the fact that they belong to each of nine social groups is important to them personally. Respondents rated each item on a scale from 1 (of no importance) to 5 (highly important).
- 4.
In their study, Maloku et al. (2016) devised the national identity measure specifically in terms of the Kosovar identity, e.g., “Being a Kosovar is an important part of who I am.” When it was specified in these terms, ethnic Serbs showed low identification with the national identity (i.e., M = 3. 99, SD = 1.81, on a 7-point scale).
- 5.
For the Serbs, Spearman’s correlation between ethnic and religious identity was 0.72 (p < 0.01), while for Albanians the correlation was 0.47 (p < 0.01).
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Maloku, E., Kelmendi, K., Vladisavljević, M. (2017). Who Is This New We? Similarities and Differences of Ethnic, Religious, and National Identity among the Albanian Majority and the Serb Minority in Post-Conflict Kosovo. In: Pratto, F., Žeželj, I., Maloku, E., Turjačanin, V., Branković, M. (eds) Shaping Social Identities After Violent Conflict. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-62021-3_6
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