Narrative Interventions and Reconciliation: Unpacking the Relationship with Victimhood Consciousness in Post-Conflict Settings
Ibrahim Khatib, Sara EL Khatib
كلية العلوم الاجتماعية والإنسانية-معهد الدوحة للدراسات العليا · قطر
The study investigates the impact of transformative narrative interventions on the relationship between two types of victimhood; inclusive and exclusive, and reconciliation in the context of Bosnia and Herzegovina almost three decades after the signing of the Dayton Agreement that put an end to the three-year-long Bosnian War. By highlighting the prolonged absence of a unified narrative of the causes and incidents during the war and the prevalence of competition over victimhood status and legitimacy betweenthe different ethno-national groups in the country. The study adopts a mixed methods approach of qualitative (183 respondents to the experimental survey) and quantitative (4 focus groups) methods. While examining how Social Identity Theory and the ContactHypothesisassist in understanding the topic.Results yielded a number of conclusions; first, narrative intervention influence the strength and significant of the relationship between both types of victimhood and reconciliation but do not alter the direction of the relationship from positive to negative or vice versa. Secondly, the intervention has the biggest impact on participants willingness to reconcile. Third, the intervention was found to have an influence on variables such as social distance, remembering victims, intergroup trust, willingness to forgive, out-group blame, and desire for socio-political separation compared to other explored variables. These results indicate an overall positive impact of the intervention on reconciliation and peaceful attitudes.