ABSTRACT
Kosovar and Serbian youth are among Europe’s most interesting populations, yet remain understudied and misrepresented. The paired categories have been studied in isolation. Ethnic polarization has been overstressed at the expense of other identification processes. In a bottom-up relational approach, I conducted in-depth, semi-structured interviews with thirty students from Priština and Belgrade (ages 18–24). I argue that youth solidarity transcends nationalist understandings through subthemes of (1) powerlessness, (2) youth culture, and (3) childhood trauma. I suggest that the subjects’ sophisticated undermining of nationalism – far from a remnant of an ugly past – may be a signal of generational refutation of inherited cleavages.
