RRPP Annual Conference
Ohrid, May 27-29, 2015
From Inclusive Identities to Inclusive Societies: Exploring
Complex Social Identity in the Western Balkans
- RRPP research project -
Marija Branković
Faculty of Philosophy, Belgrade, Serbia
Faculty of Media and Communications, Belgrade
About the project
Project title:
From Inclusive Identities to Inclusive Societies: Exploring
Complex Social Identity in the Western Balkans
Implementing institutions:
1. Faculty of Philosophy, Belgrade (leading institution)
2. Faculty of Philosophy, Skopje
3. Faculty of Philosophy, Banja Luka
4. Sarajevo School of Science and Technology
5. Individual researchers from Macedonia and Kosovo
Project duration:
18 months
Research team
18 researchers:
4 countries
11 females, 7 males
9 PhDs, 8 PhD candidates, 1 MA
Project objectives
 Exploring the complexity and inclusiveness of social
identity among Western Balkan youth.
 Exploring relationships between social identity
complexity and inclusiveness and a number of socially
relevant attitudes and behaviors (attitudes towards outgroups, political attitudes, civic activism etc.).
 Defining contexts that foster complex and inclusive social
identities.
Key constructs and measures
Social Identity Complexity (SIC)
- the degree to which different identities are both differentiated
and integrated in a person’s mental representation of her or
his group membership
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?
Key constructs and measures
Social Identity Inclusiveness (SII)
- how inclusively or exclusively one defines the in-group from the
combination of multiple cross-cutting categories
• Triple categorization task: categorization into “US” or “THEM”
• Stimuli varied by: ethnicity, nationality and religious affiliation
• Structure of the task:
Citizen of Kosovo
Serbian
Orthodox
Slobodanka Filipović
US
THEM
Stimuli from the triple categorization task
Citizen of Serbia
Albanian
Muslim
Flutra Demiri
US
THEM
Stimuli from the triple categorization task
Study design
Methodology
a. Quantitative survey
Planned sample size: 800 participants, aged between 20 and 30.
Sample structure:
Quotas: gender, education, ethnicity
Procedure: electronic testing in controlled conditions (Qualtrics)
Master questionnaire developed in English, translated to local
languages
Methodology
b. Qualitative investigation
Focus group discussions
Case studies (one per town)
Aim: Validate and extend on quantitative findings regarding
personal perceptions of identities, their relations and
boundaries, as well as contextual factors affecting the
salience of different identities.
Open questions: ideas for case study analysis
Preliminary results
Social Identity Complexity
Town
Ethnicity
Variables
Serbian
SIC
SIC Ethnicity
SIC Religion
SIC Nationality
Belgrade
7.60a
8.36a
6.26a
8.16a
Bosnian
SIC
SIC Ethnicity
SIC Religion
SIC Nationality
5.94a
7.50a
6.21a
4.10a
Novi
Pazar
8.12b
8.20a
8.02b
8.14a
5.85a
6.55a
6.40a
4.60a
*Based on database from Serbia (N =196)
* Theoretical range of the SIC measure: 1-11, higher number – less
complexity
•Social identity complexity depended on both ethnic and religious background, as
well as minority/majority status of the social group.
•Lower identity complexity was related with strong national identification.
Preliminary results
Social Identity Inclusiveness
Ethnicity
Town
Belgrade
Novi
Pazar
Variables
Serbian
SII
SII (3 overlaps)
SII (2 overlaps)
SII (1 overlaps)
SII (0 overlaps)
15.89a
5.73a
4.96a
3.47a
1.73a
13.25b
5.84a
4.09b
2.47b
0.84a
Bosnian
SII
SII (3 overlaps)
SII (2 overlaps)
SII (1 overlaps)
SII (0 overlaps)
10.96a
5.42a
3.15a
1.69a
0.69a
12.19a
5.91b
3.65a
1.90a
0.74a
Base: Database from Serbia (N=196)
SII measure theoretical range: 1-24
•SII depended on both ethnic and religious background, as well as
minority/majority status of the social group.
• Strong identification with ethnic and religious groups predicted less identity
inclusiveness.
Preliminary results
Correlations with out-group attitudes
Variables
Social Distance Orthodox Christians
Muslims
Serbs
Bosniaks
Thermometer
Orthodox Christians
Muslims
Serbs
Bosniaks
Correlations
SIC
SII
**
-.41
-.27**
.29**
-.01
**
-.40
-.32**
.15*
-.12
Mean
1.76
1.61
1.67
1.65
SD
0.91
0.82
0.81
0.91
.34**
-.31**
.32**
-.36**
63.54
72.46
68.14
69.96
29.80
30.01
27.94
27.39
.31**
-.06
.31**
-.02
Different measures of out-group attitudes were significantly correlated with
identity complexity and inclusiveness, indicating significant predictive power of
the employed identity measures.
Discussion topics
• Policy implications – how to use the findings to influence
policy makers
• Possible perspectives to analyze and discuss the findings
(from other disciplines)
• Understanding the impact of sociohistorical context on social
identity
THANK YOU FOR YOUR
ATTENTION!
For further information, please visit:
http://sibyouth.org/en/
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Social-Identity-Complexity-inthe-Balkans/311987085670238