Between “this” side and “that” side: On performativity, youth identities and “sticky” spaces

In this article, I investigate the performativity of everyday practices – doings and sayings – that work to constitute identities and spaces through different affective intensities. In doing so, I attempt to bridge a gap between Judith Butler’s account on performativity and affect theory by developing the notion of “sticky” space that I define as a performative embodied space saturated with affect. The site of the study is a post-conflict city of Mostar in Bosnia and Herzegovina, a place that appears mired in stark divisions and continued “ethnicization” of city space. Drawing on participant observation, interviews and a photography project with Mostar’s high school students, this article argues that variations in affective and emotional intensities become crucial in enabling and arresting young Mostarians’ social and spatial relations.