IMPORTANCE OF RELIGIOUS AND CONFESSIONAL DISTANCE IN THE SHAPING OF STUDENTS’ IDENTITY IN KOSOVO & METOHIJA

Abstract

Starting from the assumption that religious identification
has increased its significance in the shaping of identity in the
environments which have been in the ambience of “frozen conflict”
on a long-term basis, the extent of significance ascribed to it by
students in Kosovo & Metohija has been examined. It is assumed
that, independently of how the students themselves identify
regarding religion, and of the place of religious identification in
the identity matrix, they manifest significant distance towards the
religiously “other” because it is the area with the politicization
of the church and religious feelings, whereas religion becomes
a means, an instrument of empowering national identity. The
importance of religious affiliation as an identity segment of the
surveyed population has been seen through the comparison of selfassessments of the importance of a series of identity markers (both
those regarding traditional identity structures such as national,
religious and family affiliation, and the markers typical of modern
identity, such as sub-cultural, professional and regional affiliation).
Religious/confessional distance was examined on the Bogardus
scale, adapted to the examined student population. The research
was conducted by the survey technique in December 2016/January
2017 on the proportional quota sample of 997 students of the
Albanian University in Priština and the Serbian state University in Kosovska Mitrovica. The research was aimed at measuring the
value of religious/confessional distance of the students at these
universities and exploring the importance of religion/confession in
the structure of their identity.