Universities as sites of social capital construction towards Conflict Transformation and sustainable development. The case of post-conflict Croatia

Considerable attention has been paid in recent years to the adoption of community governance-based and socially embedded approaches as catalysts for change and conflict transformation. By leveraging on Galtung and Lederach approaches to conflict transformation and applying those to today’s fragile post conflict areas, it could be argued that processes of confrontation, negotiations and network building, by means of a variety of actors playing as agents of empowerment within the community, have contributed to change the face of conflict and bring in some signs of economic and social development. Processes of conflict transformation are seen through the lenses of Community Governance paradigm which legitimises community actors’ decision-making capacity that, envisioning mutual respect, sharing of common values and promoting human, social and cultural resources of a given setting strengthens autonomous development and supports civic, rather than political and military processes of conflict constructive transformation. Amongst the most powerful actors leading to conflict transformation are Universities and higher education institutions. By leveraging insights from literature on Community Governance, social capital, capacity/capability building and conflict transformation, the aim of this paper is to deliver the experiences of post-conflict Croatia by emphasising on the all encompassing role that Universities have played, after the end of the 5 year Balkan war, in contributing to conflict structural transformation by altering the agenda of development issues within the country as well as the structures of relationships and power distribution therein. Universities, have been supportive of a slow, but effective process of development within communities and territories by transforming conflict into a constructive occasion of capacity building. Central to the transformations developed in the aftermath of the end of the Balkans’ War is the emergence of new approaches for the country’s capacity building which initiated with the establishment of network based relationships amongst actors engaged in the decision-making, programs, organizational forms and boundary-spanning roles that included academic, educational, entrepreneurial, venture capital, industrial and public spheres. Comparisons between the Croatian experience and those of university roles in other selected catch-up regions in Eastern Europe highlight the importance to the case of networked approaches, capacity building, socially driven innovation and local development and transformation led by Universities.