Nothing Will Ever Be The Same Again. The Impact of The 2014 Protests in Bosnia Herzegovina

On February 7, 2014, enraged citizens took to the streets and set on fire government buildings all over Bosnia Herzegovina. Sparked by a workers' demonstration in the city of Tuzla few days earlier, the protests gave birth to a grassroots mobilization that spread rapidly across the country. Riots took place in the main urban centres of the country, and rallies were organized in many town and villages. Besides taking to the streets, citizens organized “plenums”, horizontal and self-organized citizen assemblies, and created new political subjects. Although the protests came to a halt in May, the 2014 unrest stands as a watershed in the history of post-war Bosnia Herzegovina.

What impact did the 2014 protests have on the wider Bosnian society? In what did the “spirit of the squares” translate, and did it provoke any change? Which role did informal actors play in the creation of the “movement for social justice”, as protesters termed it? Based on extensive fieldwork in the country, I examine the results (and limits) of the so-called Bosnian social uprising. By drawing on the work of social movement scholars who dealt with the intended and unintended consequences of social movements (McAdam 1989, Giugni 1998, Cress and Snow 2000, Giugni, Bosi and Uba 2016), I analyze the impact of the 2014 protests in the political, cultural and biographical domains. Furthermore, I investigate the role of informal actors as drivers of social change.