Together or apart? Attitudes towards multi-ethnic state and ethnically mixed communities in post-independence Kosovo

Ivlevs, Artjoms; King, Roswitha M.

Abstract

A growing body of literature has explored the impact of ethnic fractionalisation on long-term development outcomes. This chapter explores the way ethnic identities relate to the dynamics of exclusion by focusing on attitudes towards a multi-ethnic state and ethnically mixed living in post-independence Kosovo. This study is based on a survey (face-to-face interviews) of 1,367 respondents carried out in Kosovo 4 months after it proclaimed independence. Responses of the ethnic Albanians, the ethnic Serbs and other minorities in the country are contrasted, but important differences are identified across groups defined by age, gender, income levels, area of residence and labour market status. These findings suggest that, despite the prevalence of negative attitudes towards a multi-ethnic state and residential co-location which emerge for some groups, a number of factors potentially influenced by policy mediate the way ethnicity translates into attitudes towards integration.

• Publication Date: Mar 1, 2013
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 8
• Pages: 203-220
• Series Title: Economic Studies in Inequality, Social Exclusion and Well-Being,
• Book Title: Poverty and Exclusion in the Western Balkans: new directions in measurement and policy
• ISBN: 9781461449447
• Keywords: Kosovo, western balkans, ethnicity, ethnic minorities
• Public URL: https://uwe-repository.worktribe.com/output/934357
• Related Public URLs: http://www.springer.com/economics/development/book/978-1-4614-4944-7