Civil Society and Grassroots Movements : Shifts and Developments in Thirty Years of Activism in Bosnia and Herzegovina

The role of civil society in Bosnia and Herzegovina has drastically changed since the signature of the 1995 Dayton Peace Agreement. Following a post-war period characterized by the so-called “NGOization process,” grassroots groups and bottom-up movements took the place of the NGOs in the civil society scene. In particular, social movements and grassroots activism started to emerge and develop in the region in the early 2000s. The chapter explores the trajectories of civil society activism from the 2013 civic protest and the 2014 mobilization for social justice, to the contemporary movements dealing with the environment and defense of the rivers. It reveals an ongoing involvement in grassroots activism across different constituencies, starting with the urban middle classes, to encompass mobilizations of workers and more recent struggles of rural inhabitants. It examines how a range of mobilizing issues can be understood under a common thread of demands for democracy and social justice, and a challenge to an ethnically fragmented political system.