Coexisting with smog : On public understandings of air pollution in Sarajevo

Sammanfattning

Seasonal air pollution in Sarajevo has for decades been a common reality for its citizens. The Sarajevan valley is engulfed with smog every winter and the situation intensifies each year, subjecting its residents to air pollution’s slow violence. This research is thus set out to explore public understandings and perception of air pollution in Sarajevo as well as the ways and kinds of knowledge produced through lived experiences of smog. Drawing on complementary theoretical frameworks and concepts such as risk, health and slow violence, knowledge production and the notion of matter out of place, this thesis seeks to delve into how the younger generation of Sarajevans aged 20 to 30, navigated and interpreted their ordinary life in and with smog. The empirical chapters examine Sarajevans’ understanding of smog by illustrating 1) transition from fog to smog, the generational differences in addressing smog and the creation of binary opposition, 2) resignation, acceptance and negotiation of life under smog as well as knowledge production and communication and 3) conscious negligence caused by Sarajevans’ inevitable coexistence with smog manifested as everyday normality, bearing witness to smog’s slow violence, lack of publicly available pollution information and governmental and institutional neglect. By combining different methods such as participant observations, sensory, visual and digital ethnography and interviews, this thesis seeks to contribute to existing research on public understanding, perception and knowledge about air pollution, as well as to anthropological explorations on understandings of environmental issues in Bosnia and Herzegovina.