Serbian Community Research Articles

ХОРВАТСКАЯ ПОЛИТИКА: СИМВОЛИКА И БЕЗДЕЙСТВИЕ

The article is devoted to a comprehensive analysis of the foreign policy of the Republic of Croatia in close connection with its domestic policy. The author examines the balance of political forces in the country on the eve, during and after the presidential elections in 2019/2020, as well as the elections to Sabor (parliament) in July 2020. He describes in detail the situation in the party that won the elections to Sabor, - the Croatian Democratic Union, - and the internal party struggle between representatives of the centrist and right-wing nationalist groups. Largely thanks to the current leader and prime minister of Croatia A. Plenković, it ended in 2020 with the victory of the centrists. At the same time, the presidential elections in December 2019 - January 2020 were won by the candidate of the left-center - Social Democrat Z. Milanović, who defeated the CDU representative K. Grabar-Kitarović, who held this post. The author believes that in Croatia, as a result of the presidential and parliamentary elections in 2019/2020, a situation has developed in which the president and the prime minister, representatives of the left and the right centers respectively, can, through joint efforts, pursuing their own political goals, update Croatia’s domestic and foreign policy, including in the Balkan / South-Eastern Europe region. The previous policy of Croatia, according to the author, was unsuccessful. The previous leadership of Croatia, using as a basis the ideology of nationalism and fearing that Croatia would be historically associated with Yugoslavia and the Balkans, pursued a policy of self-isolation in the very region in which Croatia could play an important role. The balance of power formed in Croatia in 2020 makes it possible to intensify Croatia’s policy in the region, on the basis of a possible normalization of relations with the Serbian community of the country as well as through the process of improving relations with Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina. Without this transformation, the final stabilization in the Balkans / South-Eastern Europe region is impossible.

The Canary in the Cage: Community Voices and Social License to Operate in Central Eastern Europe

This paper is the product of SRK Exploration Services UK through the EU funded Horizon 2020 INFACT project and research undertaken as part of the doctoral study by an associate consultant. It marries European wide research through INFACT with doctoral research into the mining sector and communities in Serbia, to illustrate general and country specific issues around social license to operate. The paper illustrates how gaps are created in the extractive industries conceptualization of host communities and how that precipitates social licence to operate failures. It challenges the extractive industries use of the stakeholder concept and questions how equipped the sector is to engage and assess community-based business risk. Solutions to social licence failure in the extraction industry involve engaging with the conflict and enabling dissenting voices at an early stage of project development, rather than quelling them. Resolution to social licence issues is more likely if local communities are supported to retain control of and articulate potential conflict, rather than the conflict being captured and utilized by external actors.

Imposing an ideology: cultural trauma and political taboo in Nebojša Slijepčević’s Srbenka

The present paper analyzes Nebojša Slijepčević’s documentary Srbenka from a political and cultural perspective, from the point of view of political taboo and cultural trauma. By tackling the murder of the Zec family during the Croatian War of Independence, the film reflects on the situation of the Serbian national minority and the conflictive situation it has to confront due to the national narratives that the Croatian state has developed, which are a representation of political taboo. This situation provokes and reinforces an almost impossible to solve cultural trauma inside the Serbian community, whose population, as a result, reacts by hiding their ethnic origin in the public sphere, in a behavioural pattern known as unacknowledgeability. The reconstruction of the murder will allow me to analyze witness traumatization. In the end, a study of documentary theory, based on Nichols six modes to categorize documentaries will be developed, in order to analyze how cinema, and also the arts in general, can be used as vessels for the exposition of struggles and the development of empathy.

Priming third-party ostracism does not lead to increased affiliation in three Serbian communities

Young children rely on establishing and maintaining social relationships. As a consequence, social exclusion poses a significant threat that should be avoided actively. Previous research reports that children react to ostracism with an increased tendency to affiliate. For example, they draw more affiliative pictures and engage in more faithful (over)imitation following primes depicting social exclusion. However, all prior studies to date tested this effect in children from strongly socially independent societies, emphasizing individual freedom and psychological autonomy. The current study tested whether these effects also occur among children growing up in a society where social interdependence is emphasized more strongly. We assessed affiliative reactions to video primes depicting either third-party ostracism or control stimuli among 128 preschoolers (Mage = 4.73 years) from an urban community (Belgrade), a semi-urban community (Pozarevac), and a rural community (Kostolac) in Serbia. Across communities, children detected ostracism when it was depicted in the priming stimuli. However, children neither drew more affiliative pictures nor engaged in more faithful overimitation following primes depicting ostracism as compared with control stimuli. The two measures for affiliation (i.e., affiliative drawings and increased overimitation) were not linked on an individual level. Although these results suggest that young children from diverse societies are capable of recognizing third-party social exclusion, their response to such information is strongly shaped by cultural values on social interdependence.

Sultan’s Clergy: The Orthodox Patriarchate of Constantinople between Serbian communities and Ottoman Government, 1797‑1813

This article focuses on the activities of the Patriarchate of Constantinople and its prelates in Ottoman Serbia between 1797 and 1813. The Ottoman government tried to reform the organization of Ottoman Serbia immediately after the Ottoman-Russian-Austrian War of 1787‑1792. I argue that the Patriarchate was central in the re‑organization efforts. It was also an integral part of Ottoman policies to come to terms with the rebels when the revolt broke out in 1804. Focusing on the Patriarchate allow us to better appreciate how Ottoman power functioned, how relations were constructed on the field and how religion, authority and revolt were enmeshed.

The Education of Employees as a Motivation Factor in the Management of Clinical Center of Serbia

Abstract With more than seven thousand employees, KCS is the largest provider of health services in Serbia and one of the largest in Europe, which has more than one million patients per year. The aim of the research is to determine the assessment of employee satisfaction by various factors of motivation, various education programs at the Clinical Center of Serbia, which to some extent contribute to motivation in the workplace. Th is cross-sectional randomized descriptive study was performed from April 1st to 30th 2016, and included 151 health care professionals in Clinical Center of Serbia. Study included employees both gender and various years old, with different qualificantion and formal education. The anonymous survey about motivation of emplyoeers covered a total of 15 questions with responses (questions of closed type). Based on our results, we can conclude that despite subjectivism attributed to the survey as a method of research, in this case, we got a result that fairly objectively shows the situation in the Clinical Center of Serbia. From all of the above, we can conclude that the organizational culture is not weak in the Clinical Center of Serbia, but certainly it is necessary to work on strengthening its strength, which can be connected with the insufficient development of organizational culture as a scientific discipline in the academic community in Serbia.

ELECTRIC SCOOTERS - URBAN SECURITY CHALLENGE OR MORAL PANIC ISSUE -

Triggered by the widespread use of electric scooters in Serbian cities, the authors conducted an empirical research of media discourses in terms of their use and the influence they have on the various aspects of wellbeing in the urban environment. Among other, the authors explore the relation between the use of electric scooters and urban security challenges as seen by newspapers, as well as the lens of the Twitter community in Serbia. Through the identification of the main topics represented in both newspapers and Twitter posts, the ways and tones in which the topics have been addressed, as well as arguments provided to support the publicly expressed attitudes, this paper provides both the quantitative and qualitative analysis of data, attempting to give an answer to whether the use of electric scooters could be considered an urban security challenge or just another issue causing moral panic.

Women’s strategies in balancing career and family in the academic community in Serbia: Differences in ethnic and social origins

Even though the confrontation of women with the necessity to seek a balance between career and family in academia has become a subject of various research studies, a structural solution for this phenomenon still does not exist. The goal of this paper is to compare the narratives of Hungarian ethnic minority and Serbian majority female university staff members working at the Universities of Novi Sad and Belgrade, with respect to the difficulties they face when balancing family life and academic career. The qualitative research was based on twenty semi-structured interviews, conducted in 2014 and 2015. The findings show that women when balancing between their careers and families used certain strategies to explain their views and decisions. The challenge of finding work-life balance is great for women, who decide to deal with it on a micro level, in their own family and in their own way, to keep up with their commitments. Although these are women with the same socio-economic status, the intersectional analysis showed that there is a difference between the strategies used by respondents of different nationalities when balancing their career and family, and that their different social origin, family and life circumstances lead to establishing differences between these professional categories of women. The abovementioned differences lead to new inequalities between women in academia.

Attitudes of professionals in Serbia on gender equality and gender-based violence: The research results

In 2019 the Victimology Society of Serbia conducted the survey aimed at assessing the attitudes of professionals who work in state institutions, independent state agencies and civil society organizations in Serbia about gender equality and genderbased violence, and collecting data on their experiences and challenges in dealing with gender-based violence victims, especially Roma women and women in rural areas. The survey was a part of the broader project aimed to contribute to policy and practice changes to ensure the recognition of harmful gender stereotypes and gender discrimination and to ensure suppression and timely response in cases of gender- based violence. It was a part of the program ?Ending Violence against Women in the Western Balkan countries and Turkey: Implementing Norms, Changing Minds?, implemented by the UN Women and funded by the European Commission. The survey was conducted on a sample of 199 respondents from the police, courts, prosecutors? offices, social welfare centres, independent institutions and civil society organizations, in 21 local communities in Serbia. The survey findings suggested that in general practitioners involved in the survey do not have negative attitudes towards gender equality and gender-based violence. However, when looking at some individual statements on the scales of attitudes on gender equality and gender-based violence, as well as answers to additional questions regarding the role of women and men at home, one can still conclude that traditional (gender) stereotypes are present in respondents of both sexes. The survey results also revealed a lack of knowledge about gender-based violence, which can result in the victim not being recognized, blaming the victim, failing to provide necessary assistance, support and protection, leading to re-victimization and secondary victimization. On average, male respondents have more conservative attitudes towards gender equality and gender-based violence than women. Older respondents, and consequently respondents with longer working experience, have more negative attitudes towards gender equality and gender-based violence than younger respondents. Respondents working in the judiciary, police and prosecution have more negative attitudes towards gender equality and gender-based violence than respondents from independent state bodies, centres for social work and civil society organizations. Attitudes on gender equality proved to be a strong predictor of attitudes about different forms of gender-based violence. Therefore, it is necessary to work further on raising awareness and strengthening capacities of practitioners in state institutions and civil society organizations on issues related to gender equality and gender-based violence, as well as on raising public awareness, including (potential) victims of gender inequality and gender-based violence, so that citizens can recognize their own or victimization of others and seek help and protect their rights.

Cross-cultural validation of the Retinopathy Treatment Satisfaction Questionnaire status version (RetTSQs) in Serbian community: a cross-sectional study

ObjectiveCross-cultural translation and validation of the Serbian version of the Retinopathy Treatment Satisfaction Questionnaire status version (RetTSQs).DesignCross-sectional study.SettingsThe study was conducted between June 2017 and June 2018 at tertiary care...

Pravo na rudarskom zemljištu u srednjovekovnoj Srbiji

The aim of the research is to cast light on the legal regime of the mining area land in medieval Serbia and to answer to what extent Saxon customary mining law was accepted in this aspect and what the ratio legis of article 123 of Dušan's Code was? It seems likely that until the enactment of Dušan's Code it was possible to occupy land cleared for mining purposes and to acquire property of the mining area, which was previously res nullius. However, Dušan's Code changed this rule prescribing only the possibility of acquiring the time limited mining concession, which was motived by possible permanent monopolization of the land in the mining areas. At the same time, the Code proclaimed the right of ore search and exploration on the feudal lords' land. Similarities to the older Hungarian and Czech law indicates legal transplantation. The mining concession was regulated in Despot Stefan's Mining Code for Novo Brdo, which prescribed detailed rules for losing the concession in the case of neglecting the mining activity. Based on similarities one can assume that these rules were mostly the reception of the Saxon customary mining law, also written in late medieval mining laws of Hungary and Czechia. However, the small differences may show that after one and a half century the Serbian mining community introduced its own unique rules. Research is based on linguistic, systematic and historical analysis of the sources as well as the regressive analysis and comparative method.

Položaj i prava Srba u Rumuniji - zakonska rešenja i njihova primena

Pitanje manjinskih prava Srba u Rumuniji od znacaja je za ocuvanje njihovog nacionalnog identiteta, predstavljajuci istovremeno jednu od bitnih dimenzija bilateralnih odnosa. U radu se analizira odnos Rumunije prema nacionalnim manjinama u sferi zakonodavstva i daje osvrt na profil i delokrug rada osnovnih državnih institucija nadležnih za pitanja položaja i prava nacionalnih manjina. Autor ukazuje na to da relativno zadovoljavajuci status srpske zajednice, bolji nego u drugim zemljama regiona, ima svoje ishodiste u dobrom zakonskom osnovu i cinjenici da se Rumunija u znatnoj meri pridržava kljucnih međunarodnih dokumenata u ovoj oblasti. U radu se sagledava stepen prakticne primene zakonodavnih resenja kojima se uređuju manjinska prava srpske zajednice i zakljucuje da ona u pojedinim oblastima realnog života nisu u potpunosti postovana. To ukazuje na potrebu daljeg unapređenja položaja srpske nacionalne manjine, sto zahteva aktivnu ulogu Saveza Srba u Rumuniji, kao njene krovne organizacije, ali i nadležnih organa i institucija Republike Srbije u okviru postojecih bilateralnih mehanizama.

Community Pharmacists’ Attitudes and Professional Practice in Relation to the Patient Safety Incidents

Abstract: Background: Medicines dispensing is an error-prone activity, therefore potentially jeopardizing patient safety. This study aimed to assess the community pharmacists’ attitudes towards the causes of dispensing errors and preventive measures, as well as their practice in incidents reporting. Materials and Methods: A cross-sectional survey was performed by distributing an adopted and validated questionnaire to a nationwide sample of community pharmacists in Serbia. The questionnaire included sections related to the participants’ socio-demographic characteristics, their attitudes towards factors causing dispensing errors and corrective actions, as well as their practice in reporting. Statistical analyses were conducted using SPSS Statistics software ver. 21.0. The associations between categorical variables were analyzed using Chi-square test. Results: The study included 1,004 participants, mainly female (94.9%), with the mean age 40.9±9.9 years and mean work experience 14.3±10.0 years. More than a third of the participants (35.4%) indicated an increasing risk of dispensing errors. The main causes included illegible prescriber‘s handwriting (44.3%) and interruptions during dispensing (39.2%), while the major corrective actions were providing pharmacists with education in clinical pharmacy (71%) and reducing the interruptions during dispensing (63.9%). The majority of respondents (85.2%) stated that they routinely reported dispensing incidents. However, even 16.5% of them admitted to having fear sometimes or always. Additionally, only 58.1% of participants would use voluntary dispensing error reporting system. Conclusion: Serbian community pharmacists are aware of the existing risk in medicines dispensing and the corrective actions identified should be put into practice so as to manage them prospectively. Although the results indicate good practice in incidents reporting, conducting tailored educations and building of safety culture is necessary to improve patient safety. Key words: Dispensing errors, Community pharmacy, Patient safety, Pharmacists’ attitudes, Risk management, Systems approach.

The Political Ambitions of Serbian Patriarch Arsenije IV Jovanović Šakabenta

Arsenije IV Jovanović Šakabenta (1698–1748) was one of the last leaders of the Peć Patriarchate. The period of his service coincided with the so-called Second Great Migration of the Serbs, i.e. the migration of portions of the Serbian society from Kosovo and Metohija to the southern territories of the Habsburg monarchy. This event majorly determined the actions of the patriarch at the end of the 1730s. The article outlines the political ambitions of Arsenije IV, which he tried to realize around that time. Particular focus is given to his vision of the Serbian community under the Habsburgs and to his efforts to retain the privileges which the Serbs had been granted by emperors Leopold I, Joseph I, and Charles VI. Additionally, the analysis covers the internal dynamics of the Serbian Orthodox Church in the territories of the Habsburg monarchy. The paper also touches upon the military issues and discusses the role of Serbian soldiers in the political plans of Arsenije IV Jovanović Šakabenta.

Language practices of the Romani community in Serbia: Inclusion or response to the stigma?

The results of the research presented in the article are part of the findings of the study conducted in 2014 within the project Social and Cultural Potential of the Romani Ethnic Community in Serbia. The survey was based on the stratified sample of 1,212 respondents and conducted by a team of researchers representing four universities of Serbia. One of the aims of the research was to identify the prevailing language practices of the Romani community in Serbia. The paper presents the results of the study of the attitudes of the Romani to the use of language and their language practices focusing on such issues as the assessment of the importance of the Romani language in expressing their identity, the use of the Romani language in everyday communication in various social contexts, and the estimates of the significance of this symbolic capital in education as expressed in the parents ideas and attempts to ensure that their children are educated in their mother tongue. The results of the survey proved that the Romani community’s attitudes to language and language practice are an expression of the general social position of this group, i.e. a minority ethnic group in the Serbian society. Therefore, its language practices are determined by the need to preserve the Romani community’s identity and by uneven distribution of social power between majority and minority communities. Thus, social power (or powerlessness) ensures legitimacy for the use of a specific language in certain social situations. Considering the Romani ethnic community, the use of the mother tongue is reduced to the domain of private communication with some of the Romani people renouncing the use of their native language and hiding their ethical identity. The study proves that linguistic mimicry serves as a way to avoid social stigmatization.

CLUSTERS AS A FACTOR FOR THE ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT OF SERBIAN ENCLAVES IN KOSOVO

Agricultural holdings in Serbian enclaves in Kosovo represent a paradise for the survival, development and return of the displaced Serbian people. The method of observation and the method of analysis have examined the operation of agricultural holdings and clusters of vertical clusters - through a chain of agricultural holdings and institutions, as well as horizontals - through related entities using the same channels, as well as all state and regional bodies that can influence creation, functioning, growth and development of the cluster. By the method of synthesis, the authors give a solution that agricultural holdings will survive in the Albanian environment and should be joined in the form of clusters and doping warehouse development and to be the driver of the overall economic prosperity of the Serbian population in Kosovo. Problems of agricultural holdings in rural areas in Kosovo and Metohia are numerous, so it is necessary to enter into organized, economic and institutional measures in order to achieve strategic goals. In order to improve competitiveness on the market, agricultural holdings propose strategic linking to clusters, so joint holdings try to compensate for what they lack; human resources, working resources, finances (access to favorable credit sources), securing expansion of business links, tracking development trends, exchange of information on strategies, openness to new ideas, participation in the time and possibility of realization of joint investments, joint supply, new knowledge (organization of seminars ), training and conferences, joint marketing, visitshops), technologies. Associated in clusters of households reduce operating costs through unified procurement, joint market presence, joint participation in marketing, branding and transport costs to the end customer. State of Serbia (adoption of adequate legal regulations, tax incentives, incentives) of the local government in the enclaves (a number of programs for awarding grants or programs in the form of co-financing for newly founded clusters, intended for purchase of fixed assets, work of the cluster office, certification and introduction of a system for quality management) and the Faculty of Agriculture in Leskovo as a scientific and professional institution have an important positive, stimulating, and constructive role in the establishment of clusters, by providing expert advice. The development of the cluster achieves the wider economic, social and general social interests of the Serbian community from increasing employment in rural areas, stimulation of young people to stay in Kosovo, upgrading agricultural production and preserving the environment as well as other aspects in rural areas.

Objective Limits of Peacebuilding Exercises: Professionals as a Bridge Between Communities in Serbia and Kosovo* in the Practice of the Belgrade Fund for Political Excellence

Objective Limits of Peacebuilding Exercises: Professionals as a Bridge Between Communities in Serbia and Kosovo* in the Practice of the Belgrade Fund for Political Excellence

Community attitudes towards the mentally ill in Serbia

Introduction. Integration of the mentally ill into the community is one of the essential objectives of social rehabilitation. Deinstitutionalization is one of the central points of contemporary mental health reforms across the world. The acceptance of people with mental health problems in the general population is an important factor in determining the success of implementing deinstitutionalization strategies. Furthermore, medical students during their education attain knowledge about mental health problems as standard part of their curriculum. Quantifying the outlook towards people with mental health problems in future doctors is an important determinant of prospective community-based care. Aim. Assessment of community attitudes towards the mentally ill in a representative sample of General Population, as well as in future medical doctors in Serbia. Method. This cross-sectional study involved 1068 Serbian speaking adult subjects: 562 medical students and 506 subjects from the general population. Assessment of attitudes was measured by Community Attitudes Towards the Mentally Ill. Four dimensions of attitudes were extracted: Authoritarianism, Benevolence, Social Restrictiveness and Community Mental Health Ideology. Results. Medical Students showed more favorable attitudes across all dimensions when compared to the representative sample of General Population. In the General Population, less years of education were associated with higher levels of Authoritarian attitudes towards the mentally ill. Female gender was consistently associated with greater Benevolence, irrespective of group affiliation. Conclusion. Existing positive attitudes towards the mentally ill in the Serbian community suggest that once legislative proceedings for better integration of the mentally ill in the broader society are initiated, we can expect fast and admirable effects in the community management. Focused educational and anti-stigma interventions targeting the general population should be devised.

Političke, ekonomske i socijalne karakteristike programa političkih stranaka u Srbiji do 1918. godine

In this paper, we merely begin to discuss the establishment of political ideas, beginnings of political thought and political streams at the end of the first half of the 19th century, as the basis upon which political parties were formed several decades later. It was the time of great social turmoil and uncertain future of the young Serbian state. Serbia was recognized in 1878 after the liberation from the Ottoman rule and subsequently joined the family of world countries. Its beginning as a state was accompanied by numerous difficulties in establishing power, organizing political life and solving various social problems. The key part of this paper is dedicated to political parties, their formation and content turned into political programmes. We shall not delve into the political infrastructure nor study their exercise of power in the society. Our interests are directed at the political, economic and social content of political parties' programmes in Serbia until 1918. We intend to highlight the value basis of Serbian community's development and programme objectives used by the parties in their public communication. Taking into account that today Serbia is facing numerous challenges of political, economic, social and security nature, it is worth remembering the time 137 years ago in Serbia when its social life was formed. We can make a parallel between similarities and differences as well as challenges of this time and the past, from the perspective of one-century distance.

Carigradski glasnik (1895-1909) - prilog proučavanju privrednih, crkvenih i školskih prilika Srba u Kosovskoj Mitrovici i okolini

Carigradski glasnik polemicized in the period 1895-1909 about more topics of socio-economic nature with a special focus on Kosovska Mitrovica and its region. Censorship was crucial for this newspaper not to observe the subject of a tangible political nature, first of all with a reference to the extremely difficult position of the local Serbs. Such topics were only registered or not mentioned. Much more space was given to the economic, ecclesiastical and school opportunities of the local Serbs. This research showed that the Serbs were struggling to survive, carrying out a series of economic measures aimed at their own survival. The initiative was taken by some of the most active Serbs here, whose the most important step was the launch of their own money fund (bank) to lend their own economy. Speaking about the church opportunities we noticed the role of the diocese in Prizren, especially the actions of the Serbian bishops, as well as the local clergy, churches and monasteries. All of them had very important role in local Serbian community. It was also necessary because of the processes of Islamization and Albanianization, so the primary goal was to stop that. Local Serbian schools had a similar goal. That is why the teachers were among the most respected Serbs. Finally, we found this newspaper as a quite good source for researching history of Serbs in Kosovska Mitrovica and its region.