FAQ Krivaja

The name ‘Krivaja’ conveys the meanings ‘crooked’ and ‘skewed’. This fits well with the character of the river, which, with the exception of very few stretches, has not been straightened or dammed. The Krivaja flows rapidly through its rocky bed, frequently punctuated by rapids.

The Krivaja is 74 kilometres long and is formed by the confluence of the Bioštica and Stupčanica rivers in the town of Olovo, approximately 52 kilometres from the capital, Sarajevo. At Zavidovići, it flows into the Bosna – as its largest tributary – which drains into the Black Sea via the Sava and the Danube. The Konjuh and Ozren mountain ranges (to the north) and the Zvijezda and Tajan ranges (to the south) cut steeply into the riverbed in the upper reaches. In the lower reaches, the valley gradually widens and the mountains become gentler. Throughout its entire course, the Krivaja is surrounded by dense, managed forests.

Post-war Bosnia, under the Dayton Agreement, is divided into two halves or entities. The Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina (FBiH) accounts for 51 per cent of the territory, whilst the Republika Srpska (RS) accounts for 49 per cent. Whilst the RS is administered centrally, the FBiH is further subdivided into ten cantons. The Krivaja river lies entirely within the territory of the FBiH and the Zenica-Doboj Canton (ZE-DO Canton for short).

Local authorities are further subdivided into municipalities (Općina) and local communities (Mjesna Zajednica). The upper reaches of the river lie within the municipality of Olovo, whilst the lower reaches lie within the municipality of Zavidovići. Many important tributaries (potoci, sg. potok) such as the Duboštica, Vijačica and Tribija, as well as settlements whose communities are closely linked to those along the Krivaja, are situated in the Općina Vareš. The town of the same name is of particular significance to the Krivaja region, both as a mining centre and for historical and cultural reasons. Since ancient times, the inhabitants of the Krivaja region have also had strong ties to Tuzla, a connection that dates back to ancient trade routes. Alongside Zavidovići, Maglaj, Olovo, Vareš and Tuzla, Banovići is also a very important town for the middle reaches of the Krivaja region. Sarajevo is often perceived as being ‘far away’.

The Krivaja is of particular interest to non-human geography for several reasons. It is a natural, free-flowing river, the course and surroundings of which provide a refuge for numerous species. It is characterised not only by its rich woodland but also by the geological features of the ophiolite outcrop and its resources. A growing number of campaigners and organisations are therefore calling for the area to be officially designated as a protected refuge.

From a social perspective, too, the valley and mountainous areas of Krivaja are noteworthy, as the demographic composition of the region means it can be regarded as a ‘miniature Bosnia’. The settlements consist mainly of Muslim (Bosniak) villages and, to a lesser extent, Catholic (Croat) villages. Members of the Serbian Orthodox and Roma communities also live in the Krivaja region, although many Bosnian Serb residents have left their villages or were forced to flee. As a result of the war, refugees from other parts of the country have also arrived in the Krivaja region, including a group of women and children who fled from Srebrenica, survived the genocide and settled in Vozuća.

Functioning, albeit damaged, village communities (mjesne zajednice), such as those in Jelaške, show that the residents, as communities shaped by long-standing differences, have found many ways of living together. Many residents of the middle reaches describe the coexistence of Muslims (Bosniaks) and Catholics (Croats) as unproblematic, even though ethnic differences theoretically always harbour the potential for tension. All the villages in the upper and middle reaches have been severely affected by out-migration, but have retained their multi-ethnic structure.

Particularly in places where there has been no direct experience of violence ‘on a national basis’ (na nacionalnoj osnovi), established communities of difference have endured and continued to develop. A time-tested community of difference, as understood here, does not mean that members of an ethno-national community such as the Bosniak (Muslim) or Croatian (Catholic) communities have abandoned their distinguishing characteristics in favour of a third, shared identity construct (which, incidentally, also exists). Nor does it mean that there are no conflicts or tensions.

Rather, a well-established community of differences is based on the fact that the communities involved have found ways to cooperate and live as neighbours (komšiluk) whilst retaining their differences and distinctive characteristics. There are also tried-and-tested strategies for dealing with conflicts, which often aim to prevent them from escalating.

The term ‘Dijaspora’ refers to the approximately 1.7 to 2.0 million people from Bosnia and Herzegovina who live in countries such as Germany (the main destination), Austria, Switzerland, Sweden, Italy, the USA, Canada and Australia. In addition, there are the many residents of Croatia and Serbia who originally come from Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Anyone visiting Krivaja during the summer months of July and August, or around major religious festivals or at the turn of the year, will find that the social makeup of some villages is completely different to that outside these periods: This is the time when, thanks to the periodic return of the diaspora and their children, you see people strolling along the streets again, many cars with European number plates are parked in the driveways, and music drifts through the village from the terraces. A few weeks later, the same village can seem deserted once more.

Overall, the population of the Krivaja region is in sharp decline, a trend that mirrors the demographic developments across the whole of Bosnia and Herzegovina, as well as in other countries in south-eastern Europe. It is not only the direct consequences of the war, but also deindustrialisation, systemic change, chain migration, the ‘brain drain’, other trends and so-called push and pull factors that have led to a situation where there are not only fewer and fewer people, but also fewer and fewer local opportunities to earn a living.

The diaspora is an important economic factor in Bosnia, responsible for many remittances, stabilising family networks and maintaining buildings. Members of the diaspora play various roles within the ‘more-than-human’ framework: amongst them are committed environmentalists, disengaged observers of events, but also those involved in extractivist projects.

Although the Krivaja, as a more-than-human assemblage, has not yet been researched or described, the field itself is, of course, not unexplored. In the field of humanities and social sciences research, an anthology of works by Bosnian and Herzegovinian historians, published in 2014 by Aida Ramić and the then-existing Sarajevo-based Institut za Istoriju under the title ‘The River Krivaja Through the Ages’, is of outstanding value.

As an understanding of the religious communities in the Krivaja region is essential, research on these communities and their own publications are relevant. In addition, this work draws on insights from other studies in social anthropology, ethnography and historical anthropology – particularly those dealing with disrupted social geographies.

Autobiographical works, which contain a wealth of information on everyday life, customs and community life, are also of particular value. There is, moreover, a large number of academic publications on the specific features of geology and biology, as well as on developments in the social and political sciences, which are also relevant to this research project. Some of these research projects are still in their early stages.

This research project has several objectives.

Firstly, life-history knowledge and experiences should be preserved and understood, particularly with regard to non-human contexts. Like Bosnia and Herzegovina as a whole and other parts of South-Eastern Europe, the Krivaja region is characterised by a damaged social geography. As such, it is constantly exposed to strong tendencies towards disintegration, some of which are visible, others insidious. The decades-long exodus and the effects outlined above are now taking the heaviest toll on the region, following the long-term consequences of the war. This damage affects the non-human environment particularly severely, as current examples of aggressive extractivism demonstrate.

With the passing of the older generation – who have either remained in the region or are themselves living in the diaspora – there is a risk that much knowledge about social relationships will be lost. The non-human aspects that existed within the networks of relationships of the past have yet to be explored. Recent research projects in the field of human-animal studies, such as those examining the relationship between donkeys and humans, are moving in a similar direction. At Krivaja, the focus is primarily on the relationship between people, forests and bodies of water.

Secondly, this research is taking place in an era referred to as the Anthropocene, Capitalocene, Plantagocene or even Cthulucene. All these terms point to the central factor of human-induced (anthropogenic) climate change. The consequences of climate change are already having a significant impact on human assemblages, which (not only) for this reason should always be understood as ‘more-than-human’ assemblages.

According to empirically verified trends, the consequences of anthropogenic climate change will have a significant impact on the economic, political and social fabric of all people across the globe. It will affect not only humans, but also forest and river ecosystems, all other non-human species, the geology and specific climatic characteristics.

A landscape-based, more-than-human assemblage is complex. On the one hand, it is a geographical area – in this case, the Krivaja region. On the other hand, most assemblages extend far beyond these local boundaries – for example, into the EU, as far as North America, or even as far as Australia. Exploring and understanding Krivaja as a landscape-based, more-than-human assemblage is challenging for further reasons:

• Firstly, it means moving away from an established way of perceiving the world that draws a strict distinction between ‘nature’ and ‘culture’: the river, the animals, the resources, the plants – they all play a part;
• Secondly, this approach requires an openness to other academic disciplines and collaboration with academics.

This openness must be understood as a core task – and not merely as a decorative embellishment. Not every contextual factor can be adequately investigated by a single person trained in the social sciences and humanities; nevertheless, a historian, for example, who is engaged with a non-human framework must draw on knowledge from biology, geology and other disciplines. The following questions are intended to illustrate this:

• What are the causes of a devastating Mediterranean low-pressure system? How does it work, and what impact do its consequences have on local politics?
• Why do the forests of Kriavaja look like a thriving, dense, old-growth forest, even though they have been intensively managed since the 19th century?
• What are the geological characteristics of the ophiolite outcrop in the Konjuh-Krivaja massif, and how do these features relate to the mounting pressure from extractivism and to the geopolitical tensions between the European Union and other regions?
• What maintains the complexity of the river basin community’s biome? What threatens it, and how do the human inhabitants relate to the non-human aspects?

This list of examples is not exhaustive. It demonstrates that collaboration with other researchers from different disciplines is essential.

The relevance of a ‘more-than-human’ research design to the Krivaja could not be clearer. The following examples from the recent history of the Krivaja region illustrate and support this research perspective:

1. Mediterranean cyclone Yvette (Tamara) and the 2014 floods, which severely affected Krivaja and the surrounding towns;
2. The experience of averting the threat posed by the construction of eight small hydroelectric power stations and the damming of the river between 2009 and 2012;
3. The pollution of the Bioštica River caused by the lead mine near Olovo in 2023 and 2024, which was subsequently forced to close;
4. The closure of the Krivaja timber-processing factory in Zavidovići in December 2015, which amounted to a social disaster.

These and other interrelationships should first be understood as part of people’s everyday experience. The project explores how historical and contemporary experiences influence and shape non-human life in Krivaja as an assemblage. Particular attention is paid to the question of whether, and how, the political (le politique) is reshaped by these factors within Bosnia’s damaged social geography.

The term ‘more-than-human’ was first used as early as 1996 by the American environmental philosopher David Abram. Other figures who have referred to the term, either directly or indirectly, include the environmental feminist Donna Haraway, the evolutionary biologist Lynn Margulis, the Earth system scientist James E. Lovelock, the sociologist and philosopher Bruno Latour, and others.

What these and other scholars in the humanities and natural sciences have in common is that they think together about what naturally belongs together: Lynn Margulis, for example, draws on the fundamental constant of all life on Earth since the dawn of evolution – the fact that species as diverse as bacteria and humans are related to one another right down to their cell nuclei. Together with her British colleague James E. Lovelock, she is regarded as a co-founder of the scientifically grounded (non-esoteric) Gaia hypothesis.

The core tenet of the Gaia hypothesis is that the Earth’s entire biosphere (including its atmosphere) is a single living organism that constantly strives for balance. If this universal theory is broken down into a smaller, landscape-based framework, it simply means that the interplay of all species within that framework must at least be taken into account.

A very well-known example of a ‘more-than-human’ assemblage was studied by Anna Lowenhaupt Tsing. As the American anthropologist has demonstrated in her research into an assemblage spanning several continents and species, there are clear links between a damaged society, damaged forests and the living conditions of people in these areas.

The assemblage described by Lowenhaupt Tsing revolves around the matsutake mushroom. To summarise very broadly, it explores its role in the development of capitalist production and delivery chains, in multilateral trade relations and in geopolitical implications. In her work, the author does not merely describe how forms of damage – such as precariousness and environmental destruction and change – affect societies; she also demonstrates how different species, ranging from Matsutake mushrooms to refugees from South-East Asia in North America, shape the broader fabric of a damaged environment and damaged forests, and give rise to adapted strategies for survival.

Lowenhaupt Tsing, for example, contextualises how vulnerable social organisations in Indonesia at that time were closely linked to changes in the forests in Japan, thousands of kilometres away. She also traces the global implications by using her wide-ranging research to show how the principle of supply-chain capitalism in the US had originally emerged in Japan and within the Japanese-Indonesian context, before becoming established in the US and worldwide.

In addition to Tsing, numerous other scholars are pursuing the landscape-based assemblage approach. In the case of Krivaja, it seems inevitable that we must address, in a very similar way, the interconnections of an assemblage that extends far beyond the Krivaja region. Even on the basis of preliminary research, it is clear that post-Yugoslav diasporas in Europe and overseas play just as significant a role as geopolitical shifts in the energy sector, anthropogenic climate change and its consequences, investors from countries such as Australia, the United Kingdom, Germany, Canada and others, as well as mineral resources, timber, water, countless living organisms and other substances.

This project currently receives no funding whatsoever and is being carried out on a voluntary basis without remuneration. However, there are plans to seek financial support and/or project partners for this project. At present, there is no way to remunerate interested guest authors for their contributions through fees or other financial means.

This research project builds on the work described in ‘Is the Krivaja an unexplored region?’ as well as on a great deal of material yet to be examined. It complements this work by filling a gap: here, knowledge is gathered through the focal areas of geography, history, society and interspecies relations (i.e. more-than-human aspects), which is described as a landscape-based framework of a damaged geography. It is an endeavour to grasp a connection that has always existed: a more-than-human assemblage in which humans cannot be considered in isolation.

Given the immense importance of the Krivaya region’s forest resources, mineral deposits and water alone, this seems self-evident. Work is therefore underway to compile as comprehensive a collection as possible on the Krivaya region, which is to be published as an illustrated book once it has reached a sufficient level of completeness. The collection of (audio-)visual data and texts is also to be made available as a science blog during the research process (and thereafter) (see ‘Open Science Ethics’ for further details).

In order to describe a landscape-based, more-than-human assemblage (or structure) in damaged landscapes and social spaces, a multi-method research approach is required. This approach, which does not prescribe a fixed set of methods, was employed early on by Norbert Elias, who used it to analyse figurations and human processes. Elias combined qualitative and quantitative data.

Participant observation, spending varying lengths of time in the field, keeping a field diary, and conducting qualitative (life-history or topic-specific) interviews are fundamental methods in this context. The research is facilitated by the effects of ‘native anthropology’, as growing up and being socialised in a Bosnian-German family (as in the case of the project leader) or in Bosnia (as in the case of the prospective project partners) ensures easier access to the field.

Guided and unguided, brief and in-depth site visits to social and natural environments are another method. This method, which originally stems from social work, is used primarily for conducting social space analyses in urban social spaces. As the landscape-based assemblage of the Krivaja also constitutes a (albeit rural) social space that needs to be ‘got to know’, this method is also suitable for this project. During my preliminary explorations, for example, members of the GSS (Mountain Rescue Service in Bosnia and Herzegovina) guided me through the Tajan Mountains, where I was able to gain experiences that would have been impossible, or at least very difficult to access, without experienced guides.

In this research approach, ‘landscape-based’ and ‘landscape’ are not reduced to the geographical landscape alone, but are expanded to include aspects of human geography that are of a material, immaterial and symbolic nature. For this reason, alongside field notes, photography and video recordings also play a central methodological role. In addition, press coverage and reporting are examined, whilst local archives, personal archives, private collections, historical photographs and postcards, letters, autobiographical works, secondary literature and other materials are also drawn upon.

Open Science means not only a commitment to Open Access and Open Code, but also remaining transparent throughout the research process and not deliberately restricting access to knowledge for one’s own benefit. Even before a scholarly monograph is produced, individual pieces of knowledge can be shared. For this reason, field notes are published as blog posts on the project website under the categories ‘Geography’, ‘History’, ‘Society’ and ‘Interspecies’. These can be expanded into a series or thread as the research process progresses.

Open Science also means being open to contributions from others. Anyone interested in contributing their own texts, photographs or other materials is invited to submit them, subject to consultation and agreement with the project leader. These should relate to one of the four research areas connected with Krivaja. Translations of previously published works, reprints, theoretical essays or reviews are also welcome, provided they can establish a connection to the research areas.

The copyright of others is, of course, respected. Guest authors publish exclusively under their real names and retain all rights in accordance with the CC BY-NC-SA (Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike) licence. Authors choose the language of their contributions themselves (Bosnian/Croatian/Montenegrin/Serbian, German, English) and are expected to provide translations themselves if required. All publications by guest authors are reviewed in advance by the project manager. Both non-academic and academic formats, as well as textual, graphic and multimedia formats, are possible or conceivable.

For more details, see ‘Open Science Ethics’