Intersecting Religioscapes and Antagonistic Tolerance: Trajectories of Competition and Sharing of Religious Spaces in the Balkans

Abstract

This article analyses patterns of competition between religious groups in urban settings, and empirical indicators of the dominance of one religious community over another, utilising the theoretical model of ‘Antagonistic Tolerance’, or competitive sharing of space. The key analytical concept used is ‘religioscapes’: the distribution in spaces through time of the physical manifestations of specific religious traditions and of the populations that build them. These indicators include perceptibility (for example, height, mass, colour, audibility) and centrality in a settlement. The model is explained with reference to patterns of change of religioscapes in: Sarajevo, Bosnia; Sofia, Bulgaria; Belgrade, Serbia; and other examples from the post-Ottoman world. While the focus of the paper is mainly on cities, an analysis of specific sites in contemporary Cyprus reminds us that urban conflicts are inevitably tied to those in wider social spheres.

Acknowledgements

The research reported here was supported in part by the National Science Foundation under grant number 0719677 and by the Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research, but neither foundation bears any responsibility for the data and analysis. Parts of the research were undertaken with Timothy Walker, Enrique Lopez-Hurtado, Tuğba Tanyeri-Erdemir, and Milica Bakić-Hayden; but none of them may be blamed for anything said here. I am also grateful for the comments of Liam O'Dowd and Martina McKnight, and of two anonymous reviewers for this journal.

Notes

1. The story quoted and some of his other writings made Andrić unpopular with some Bosniak (Bosnian Muslim) intellectuals (see for example Maglajlić, 2000).

2. Office of the High Representative, “Municipal authorities Must Not Raise Tensions”, OHR / EUSR | 14/3/2008, http://www.ohr.int/ohr-dept/presso/pressr/default.asp?content_id=41437 (accessed May 10, 2012).