When Our History Meets Their History: Strategies Young People in Serbia Use to Coordinate Conflicting Group Narratives

When a multiethnic state, such as the former Yugoslavia, dissolves in a violent ethnic-based conflict, new generations grow up on one-sided historical narratives. While there is plenty of evidence of how appropriating such narratives delegitimizes outgroups, studies on how young people coordinate diverse group narratives are lacking. To address this issue, we explored promotive strategies young majority group members use in building a more inclusive historical understanding of two conflicting (majority and minority) narratives. The sample consisted of ten pairs of ethnic Serb high school seniors with a task to jointly build one common narrative out of two one-sided narratives adapted from post-conflict textbooks of majority (Serb) and minority (Bosniak) ethnic groups. We used step-by-step dialogical analysis of semantic promoters in participants' interactions to capture how ingroup and outgroup perspectives are collaboratively positioned. Our results suggest participants use various cognitive, affective, identity and value-based strategies to coordinate conflicting perspectives. The identified promotive strategies can help in developing evidence-based educational materials and teaching environments, especially in post-conflict and divided societies.