1. EASP small group meeting
Budapest, 18 – 21 June, 2015
Social identity complexity and inclusiveness in ethnic majority and minority youth groups
Marija Branković, Olja Jovanović, Maša Pavlović, Marko Vladisavljević, Iris Žeželj, Nebojša Petrović
Belgrade University

2. The research context: Western Balkans
The context: Western Balkans as a region of deep ethnic and religious divisions and a recent history of violent conflict

3. The research context: Western Balkans
Today: a region in the process of EU integration, moving towards the proclaimed goals of tolerant and open societies. Still, deep seated ethnic and religious divisions are prevalent.

4. A post-conflict region?
The aspired goal: creating inclusive societies integrated into Europe
But,
Still prevalent and deep ethnic and religious divisions.
Minority groups are not well integrated and deprived of acsess to resources.
One of the important impediments: exclusive social identifications.
Ethnic divisions and segregation still in the everyday life
Ethnocentrism
Religious identifications on the rise
Ethnic and religious identification closely intertwined

5. Multiple social identities
Focus on multiple social identities
A novel approach to studying social identities (Roccas&Brewer, 2002)
Cross-cutting group membership
Is this complexity reflected in individuals’ perceptions?
Theoretical rationale:
More complex/inclusive identities – embracing of more inclusive societies (Bodenhausen, 2010)

6. Multiple social identites
Ethnic group
National group
Religious group
Rezognize as ingroupers persons I share some, but not all characteristics with, why this is important

7. Research problem
Focus on the youth (20-30 y.o.a) as the agent of social change
Construal of multiple social identities in young ethnic majority and minority group members in Serbia and Kosovo
How complex and how inclusive are their social identities?

8. Research problem
Five groups with different ethnic, but also social and political backgrounds:
majority at both state and local levels
(Serbs in Belgrade)
state minority and local minority
(Bosniaks in Belgrade)
state majority and local minority
(Serbs in Sandzak)
state minority and local majority
(Bosniaks in Sandzak)
(Serbs in Kosovska Mitrovica)
Different statuses on state and local levels could shape different identity structures and strategies

9. Study design

10. Key constructs and measures
Social Identity Complexity (SIC, Roccas & Brewer, 2002)
the degree to which different identities are both differentiated and integrated in a person’s mental representation of her or his group membership
Low complexity - a highly exclusive in-group representation;
High complexity - differentiation between in-group categories.

11. Social Identity Complexity
Operationalization: Perceived overlap between national / ethnic / religious in-groups e.g. When you think of people who are Serbs, how many of them are Orthodox? When you think of people who are citizens of Serbia, how many of them are Serbs? (Maloku-Bërdyna, 2014, Roccas & Brewer, 2002, Schmid et al., 2009)

12. Key constructs and measures
Social Identity Inclusiveness (SII, Van Dommelen et al., 2015)
how inclusively or exclusively one defines the in-group from the combination of multiple cross-cutting categories
the relative number of people a person identifies with based on group membership
SII varies on a continuum from a very restricted to a highly inclusive social self

13. Social Identity Inclusiveness
Triple categorization task: categorization into “US” or “THEM”
Stimuli varied by: ethnicity, nationality and religious affiliation
24 combinations
Triple in-groupers
Double in-groupers
Single in-groupers
Triple out-groupers
Measure: the number of persons categorized as US

14. Stimuli from the triple categorization task
Citizen of Serbia
Bosniak ethnicity
Muslim
Aida Spahić US
THEM
Stimuli from the triple categorization task

15. Stimuli from the triple categorization task
Citizen of Serbia
Serbian ethnicity
Christian Orthodox
Slobodanka Filipović US
THEM
Stimuli from the triple categorization task

16. Sampling
Sample: ethnic majority and minority group members in Serbia and Kosovo (N=265).
Two towns in Serbia: Belgrade and Novi Pazar
One town in Kosovo: Kosovska Mitrovica
Quota sample by gender, education and ethnicity.

17. Analysis Group comparisson

18. Results: Social Identity Complexity
SERBS
BOSNIAKS
Theoretical range of the SIC measure: 1-11, higher number – lesscomplexity
Ethnicity F (1, 260) = 4.54, p = .034, η2=.017
Status on state level F (1,260) = , p = .000), η2=0.57,

19. SIC: ethnic-religious overlap

20. Results: Social Identity Inclusiveness
SERBS
BOSNIAKS
SII measure theoretical range: 1-24, higher value indicating more inclusive idenitity
Ethnicity (F (1,263) = 13.40, p=.000, η2=.048)
Status at the state level (F (1, 260) = 16.06, p =.000, η2=.058)
Status at the local level (F (1, 260) = 6.94, p =.009, η2 =.026)

21. Social inclusiveness styles
Serbs Belgrade
Serbs Novi Pazar
Serbs Kosovska mitrovica
Bosniaks
Novi Pazar
Belgrade
Egalitarian structure (14.3%)
Egalitarian structure (9.4%)
Ethnic dominanace (15.9%)
ER intersection /Religious dominance (13.2%)
ER intersection (15.4%)
*only 30% of participants was categorized into one of the styles

22. Contact with out-group members
Majority/minority status
There were no moderation effects of minority/majority status (either state or local level).
Country contact*
Social Identity
Complexity
-.123*
Quality of contact
Social Identity
Inclusiveness
.239 **

23. Individual identifications and SIC/SIIβ
Individual identifications and SIC/SII
Ethnicity ID
β = -.34** to -.48**
Social Identity Inclusiveness
Religious ID
National ID
European ID
Strong ethnic identification leads to less inclusive identites.
Technique: step-wise regression

24. Individual identifications and SIC/SIIβ
Individual identifications and SIC/SII
Ethnicity ID
Social Identity Complexity
Religious ID*
β = .26
National ID
European ID**
β =.29
*Bosniaks Novi Pazar
**Serbs Belgrade

25. Discussion
Minority/majority perspectives on multiple social identities: similarities and differences?
Potential opportunities and barriers for improved inter-ethnic relations stemming from both perspectives
Majority – less complex and more inclusive identities
Minority – more complex and less inclusive identities
Importance of both state-level status and local context for identity construal

26. Discussion Some similarities in both minority/majority perspectives:
Stronger ties with the ethnic identity – less inclusive identities
More (quality) diversity – more complex and inclusive identities
Multiple identities perspective as a useful tool for conceptualizing minority/majority perspectives

27. The research team

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29. THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION!
DISCLAIMER
 The RRPP promotes social science research in the Western Balkans (Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Macedonia, Montenegro and Serbia). Social science research aids in the understanding of the specific reform needs of countries in the region and in identifying the long-term implications of policy choices. Researchers receive support through research grants, methodological and thematic trainings as well as opportunities for regional and international networking and mentoring. The RRPP is coordinated and operated by the Interfaculty Institute for Central and Eastern Europe (IICEE) at the University of Fribourg (Switzerland). The programme is fully funded by the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC), Federal Department of Foreign Affairs.
The views expressed in this study are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent opinions of the SDC and the University of Fribourg.