Vol. 41 No. 2 (2026) Articles
By Halide Velioğlu
In postwar Sarajevo, repair is mainly a masculine activity, and people lean on communal networks to get things fixed under dire economic circumstances. Yet increased numbers of women without men in their households as an effect of the war necessitate the mediation of other women in facilitating access to men’s labor. Women of social capital who have access to men gain prestige by proffering male repair services. Examining the case of a gender-nonconforming woman provides rich insight into the pivotal role that “gender propriety” plays in establishing systems of daily care, normalcy, and social order in Bosnia. The mundane gendered work of repairing broken things ultimately depends on cultivating, sustaining, and sometimes recalibrating relationships among women.
postwar Bosnia; Sarajevo; anthropology of everyday life; reciprocity; gender; maintenance and care
Copyright (c) 2026 Halide Velioğlu
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
