INDUSTRY
Once the thriving economic backbone of pre-war Zenica, the steel mill district now sits quietly, rumbling softly under the operation of a barely-present staff. Tons upon tons of cabling, girders, and scrap litter the fields. Machines built for rapid-production slowly rust over.
EXILE
The refugees of the surrounding mountainsides—those who have fled their urban homes and communities in war-times for fear of persecution (in the case of many young men, in fear of execution)—live a silent, almost forgotten existence in small, cramped spaces. Children who will never know the pre-war homes of their parents and loved ones sit silently in their bedrooms and fields, as if waiting for something that has yet to come.
SOCIAL
Unlike the traditional US social scene ("living for the weekend" as hoards of young adults gather mainly on Friday and Saturday evenings, for late, long interactions), the people of Zenica place value in a sustained social scene: going out almost every night or afternoon of the week, spending the dollar or two on coffee or pool admission despite the high unemployment rate. Even as economic and cultural shifts transform the world around them, the population of the city remains caught in the never-ending conversations; that is, until around ten in the evening, as the streets start to clear. By midnight —every night—the streets are still, empty. Conversations, if continued, are taken indoors, out of the public space.
HOME
Patterns dominate the home landscape, both in the cities and on the farms. Mothers cook and clean (food is often purchased same-day or pulled from the fields where it was grown) and fathers, those lucky enough to be employed, spend long days at the workplace. Depending on their ages and genders the children can be found working (at home or for a paycheck), socializing, or simply wandering the city for hours on end. Home life, for many, remains trapped in a cyclical burden of "getting by," starting every morning with the same questions, responsibilities and thoughts as the preceding day.
