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The spatial turn in peace and conflict studies brought valuable insights about space in (post-)conflict contexts. Nevertheless, critiques of this literature call for further engagement with spatial heterogeneity. I suggest that analyzing space–time relationships is a promising avenue, as understandings of space are substantiated by heterogeneous temporal experiences. To capture space–timeheterogeneity, I introduce the concept of ‘spatio-temporal conflicts’, which draws attention to how actors construct spatial narratives based on heterogeneous and conflicting temporalities. I illustrate the analytical usefulness of this concept by employing it to explore conflicting space–time narratives around the Partisan Memorial Cemetery in post-war Mostar.

The spatial turn in peace and conflict studies and the geographies of peace research agendas have underscored the importance of space in (post-)conflict societies. These fields, despite recognising that space and time are inseparable dimensions, often pay more attention to the former compared to the latter. To address this gap, this article explains how space relates to temporality, a concept that delves into the lived experiences of time. More specifically, I analyse how understandings of the past, present, and future shape spatial narratives about war ruins in Mostar (Bosnia and Herzegovina), where buildings targeted during the 1990s wars remain unreconstructed. Drawing on spatial narratives gathered through walks and elite interviews, I show that temporality is a crucial element of space because lived experiences of time structure individuals' perspectives on war ruins in Mostar. Four temporalities were woven into participants’ narratives: (1) narratives shaped by trauma temporalities where war ruins remind people of wartime violence and collapse past and present; (2) narratives driven by temporalities of nostalgia and opportunities that invite reflections about the future of Mostar; (3) narratives building on a temporality of commodification that sees ruins as marketable attractions for tourists; and (4) narratives framing ruins as barriers to synchronising Mostar to a temporality of modernity, characterised by notions of progress and economic development. Through these findings, I demonstrate that temporalities are a key factor in how individuals perceive space and highlight the importance of temporalities in explaining heterogeneous attitudes toward space in areas affected by violence.

Connecting the concepts of space, time, and pace, in this article I theorise how distinct narratives of (post-)conflict spaces impact people’s differing experiences of the pace of peace processes and post-war transitions. Drawing on 14 walking interviews in post-war Mostar (Bosnia and Herzegovina), I identify three experiences of paces of the peace process connected to spaces across town: slow pace of liminality, acceleration of life, and fast-paced neoliberal development. By zooming into narratives about places in the city, I demonstrate that space influences people’s heterogeneous perceptions of slowness and fastness of the peace process. These findings improve our understanding of temporalities in transitional societies by demonstrating how spatial settings shape people’s temporalities of post-war transitions. Moreover, it helps advance the spatial turn in peace and conflict studies by employing spatial analysis to provide insights into the varied paces at which people experience peacebuilding processes and post-war reconstruction. 

Research on post-war cities has often examined how ethnonational identities are used to produce urban divisions, as well as how they are contested through spaces that promote interethnic encounter. While previous research has generated important insights, it often treats division – and efforts to resist it and bridge communities across divides – as the primary reference point for interpreting post-war urban life. Here, I argue that such an emphasis can obscure the heterogeneous ways in which residents inhabit and make sense of cities shaped by the aftermath of war. Drawing on phenomenological perspectives within geography, I develop the concept of being-in-postwar-cities as a framework for analysing how diverse identities are formed through lived engagements with socio-material environments. Operationalised through spatiality, temporality, and selfhood, the framework captures how diverse wartime legacies, political-economic transformations, and forms of peace beyond interethnic encounter intersect in producing identities beyond ethnonational ones. Rather than isolating specific phenomena such as ethnonational identities, division, or interethnic encounter, being-in-postwar-cities captures the heterogeneity of post-war cities and brings these dimensions into relation, using the urban context as a reference point for analysis. The argument is illustrated through walking interviews and qualitative data from Mostar (Bosnia and Herzegovina), a paradigmatic case within the divided cities literature. The findings show how post-war urban life is shaped by heterogeneous processes – including domicide, neoliberal reconstruction, and peace as liveability and safety – that are not reducible to division or its contestation. In doing so, the article broadens the conceptualisation of and analytical approach to post-war cities and peace.