Prosperity without security: The precarity of interpreters in postsocialist, postconflict Bosnia-Herzegovina

Baker, Catherine

Abstract

This article uses life history interview data collected during a project on languages and peace support operations in Bosnia-Herzegovina to consider, as an occupational group, people from former Yugoslavia who were employed as interpreters by foreign military forces. In exploring their opportunities for temporary prosperity and the sources of precarity that were associated with this distinctive form of work, Catherine Baker dis cusses the socioeconomic transformation of Bosnia-Herzegovina both in light of literature on postsocialist labor and in light of a global "development- security nexus" that may be observed during and after contemporary conflicts. Neither lens is sufficient for understanding the full extent of Bosnia-Herzegovina. Baker concludes by making the case for researchers of all postsocialist societies in central and eastern Europe, not just the societies 'that have directly experienced armed conflict, to take account of the global context of security, development, humanitarianism, and intervention.

Citation

Baker, C. (2012). Prosperity without security: The precarity of interpreters in postsocialist, postconflict Bosnia-Herzegovina. Slavic Review, 71(4), 849-872. https://doi.org/10.5612/slavicreview.71.4.0849

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Online Publication Date: Jan 20, 2017
• Publication Date: 2012
• Deposit Date: Dec 22, 2020
• Journal: Slavic Review
• Print ISSN: 0037-6779
• Electronic ISSN: 2325-7784
• Publisher: Association for Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies (ASEEES)
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 71
• Issue: 4
• Pages: 849-872
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.5612/slavicreview.71.4.0849
• Public URL: https://hull-repository.worktribe.com/output/3565345
• Publisher URL: https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/slavic-review/article/abs/prosperity-without-security-the-precarity-of-interpreters-in-postsocialist-postconflict-bosniaherzegovina/9B14899A904606A57EBFEF75EDBA4519