Flying under the ethnic radar : subdued identities of Serbs amidst Croatian statebuilding

Zupančič, Rok (author), Đorđević, Anđela (author), Kočan, Faris (author)

Gorski Kotar, a region in north-west Croatia inhabited by Croats and Serbs, was largely spared the massive armed violence of the 1990s. This study argues that the maintenance of peace, which continues to this day, is largely due to a strategy of the local Serbs that can be described as ‘flying under the ethnic radar’. This means that they avoid displaying their ‘ethnic visibility’ too openly, which characterises the everyday life of local Serbs even in the post-war period. The study uses a variety of qualitative research methods: participant observation, in-depth interviews and the analysis of primary and secondary sources.

• Language: English
• Keywords: Gorski Kotar, interethnic relations, peacebuilding, statebuilding, conflict resolution
• Work type: Article
• Typology: 1.01 - Original Scientific Article
• Organization: FDV - Faculty of Social Sciences
• Publication status: Published
• Publication version: Version of Record
• Year: 2026
• Number of pages: Str. 267–287
• Numbering: Vol. 20, no. 2
• PID: 20.500.12556/RUL-169550
• UDC: 323.15(497.5)
• ISSN on article: 1750-2985
• DOI: 10.1080/17502977.2025.2491854
• COBISS.SI-ID: 238113027
• Publication date in RUL: 03.06.2025

Record is a part of a journal

• Title: Journal of intervention and statebuilding
• Publisher: Taylor & Francis
• ISSN: 1750-2985
• COBISS.SI-ID: 522189849

Licences

• License: CC BY-NC-ND 4.0, Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International
• Link: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
• Description: The most restrictive Creative Commons license. This only allows people to download and share the work for no commercial gain and for no other purposes.

Secondary language

• Language: Slovenian
• Keywords: manjšine, etnična pripadnost, Srbi, Hrvaška, Gorski Kotar