From workers to soldiers to nothing? Male citizenship in the former Yugoslavia

General conceptions of citizenship have been criticised by scholars for their false universality. Feminists in particular have argued that the consequences of seemingly neutral citizenship are more often than not gendered, with highly discriminatory impact on women. Less focus has been given to men, on the other hand, and the 'universal' has often been equated with 'male'. This paper will interrogate male citizenship in the former Yugoslav states of Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Serbia, in particular in the context of soldiering. Yugoslav male citizens were to contribute to the state as workers and as military conscripts. The latter element in particular impacted on the expectations of men during the Yugoslav Wars of Succession, 1991-1995. Today, military conscription has been abandoned and all that remains are veteran associations which are sometimes mobilised by right-wing political parties and sometimes marginalised. The post-socialist, post-conflict and multiethnic specificity will highlight how particular conceptions of masculinity inform but also are reaffirmed by gendered citizenship regimes, impacting on the lives of men. The questions that will be addressed are whether, following the abandonment of the right to work and the duty to serve (through conscription), male citizenship can be only understood in opposition to women's specific provisions, how male citizenship is internally differentiated in this context and what remains of the concept of citizenship when the abstract and disembodied citizens have all but disappeared.