FROM THE HINTERLAND: COMMEMORATING THE CENTENARY OF WORLD WAR I IN BOHINJ

The centenary of World War I has been marked by a broad range of commemorative practices across Europe. This has also been the case in Bohinj, a region located in the Julian Alps in the northeastern corner of present-day Slovenia. This article is an examination of the diverse practices of commemoration and heritagization of World War I in Bohinj against the backdrop of contemporary global developments that frame the centenary: the rise of war tourism and the globalization of heritage as an evermore important element of identity construction as well as the political economy of tourism. To what extent do these contemporary trends inform the specific nature of current commemoration and heritagization practices? Their study - together with an analysis of the actors that produce, enact, resist or promote them - aids in identifying and analyzing the diverse social processes that shape Bohinj's present landscape of war heritage.