Transition In Serbia Research Articles

Fabula Rasa by Marija Knežević (review)

Fabula Rasa by Marija Knežević (review)

The ethnological/anthropological production in the period transition in Serbia

The ethnological/anthropological production in the period 2002 - 2008, is the reflection of the complex social, economic, political and bureaucratic situations and strategies. To establish a clear picture of ethnological/anthropological production, our analyses are concentrated on the distinguished fields, themes, those who realize them, particularly in the publishing work. At the same time, we confront science and society to point out to an interconnection of proximity and distance. Ethnological networks are continuously taking place in the scope of research programs, education programs, museum programs, research programs and scientific presentation and communication programs. These programs are part of institutional and team strategies, but they are primarily instigated by individual initiatives. The principal mainstays and coordinators of research programs are the Ethnographic Institute of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts (EI SANU) in the scope of which important and diverse projects are being realized for the last 60 years; the Ethnology and Anthropology Department of the Faculty of Philosophy in Belgrade (OEA FF), which is, in addition to pedagogic activities, also implementing scientific projects. The Ethnographic Museum in Belgrade (EM) and the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts (SANU) Balkanology Institute, as well as regional museums and cultural institutions are also implementing research projects. Most research program focus on the dynamics of contemporary societal and cultural processes, but also on the continuity and transformation of traditional elements. In this document we will focus more on the scientific and research results through the publishing activity of ethnological/anthropological institutions, based on which one may observe the overall ethnological/anthropological activities in the last eight years.

Belgrade: Intra-urban daily migrations of labor, pupils and students

Daily migrations of population represent a very significant and developed social phenomenon which, in the conditions of transition in Serbia, does not have the previous spatial and demographic expressiveness. Nevertheless, the complex significance of the scientific explanation of convergent and divergent daily migrations of the centers of larger and smaller functional capacity is indisputable. Consequently, the intra-urban daily movements of labor, pupils and students will be dealt with within the planned and formal borders of the Belgrade settlement among 10 urban municipalities. According to a special statistical data processing of the 2002 population census, 316 817 of its permanent residents participated in these movements or 4.2% of the total population of Serbia without the Autonomous Province of Kosovo and Metohia, whereof most of them are workers. Their daily movement and commute within the borders of the city contributes to a great extent to the dynamical circulation of people and intensive transportation flows among some parts of Belgrade, as well as the changes in the concentration of their total population throughout the working day.

Late transition in Serbia and (im)possibility to 'enlighten' the Serbian elites

The paper presents results of the latest authors' research on elitization criminalization and late transition of Serbian society. Those issues are considered to be the most important obstacle for modernization and for internal and external integration of Serbian society, in other words, they are treated as a key element of Serbia's isolation and its non-adjustment and conflicts with the rest of the world, as well as with itself. In that context, special attention is given to the definition of Serbian society's disintegrative characteristics, and also to recognizing its integrative potentials. Such orientation set the two directions of the research: on one hand, authors tried to define substantial elements of Serbian elites and to determine their crucial role and biggest responsibility in the processes of(dis)integration of Serbian society in the time of late and accelerated transition; and, on the other hand, authors tried to identify conditions under which the elites could become interested in democratization and stabilization of the society, as well as in the institutionalization of 'socially contrived market' (Mancur Olson), which can certainly be considered as the best and most lasting basis of regional association and in?clusion in the so called, 'wider European integrations'. SA U radu su predoceni nalazi najnovijih istrazivanja autora, koji su posveceni problemu elitizacije, kriminalizacije i zakasnele tranzicije srpskog drustva.1 Ti problemi se smatraju jednom od najvaznijih prepreka njegove modernizacije i unutrasnje i spoljasnje integracije, odnosno tretiraju se kao kljucni cinilac izolacije Srbije i njenih ne-prilagodjenosti i sukobljavanja, kako sa svetom, tako i sa samom sobom. U tom kontekstu posebna paznja posvecuje se preciziranju dezintegrativnih obelezja srpskog drustva, kao i prepoznavanju njegovih integrativnih potencijala. Takva orijentacija usmerila je istrazivanje u dva pravca: s jed-ne strane, autori nastoje da definisu sustinska obelezja srpskih elita i da odrede njihovu presudnu ulogu i najvecu odgovornost u procesima (dez)integracije srpskog drustva u doba zakasnele i ubrzane tranzicije; a, s druge strane, pokusavaju da identifikuju uslove pod kojima bi te elite same mogle postati zainteresovane za demokratizaciju i stabilizaciju drustva, kao i za institucionalizaciju 'drustveno ugovorenog trzista' (Mankur Olson), sto se svakako moze smatrati najboljom i najtrajnijom osnovom regionalnog povezivanja i ukljucivanja u tzv. sire evropske integracije.

The Family and Work in the Post-socialist Transition of Serbia: 1991–2006

For a long period of time, the family and the household have not been considered agents in the economic sphere. However, in contemporary theoretical and research practice we are witnessing a rehabilitation of this aspect of family activity. The importance of the broader social and economic impact of this activity of families and households is legitimated through the concepts of social capital and household strategies in the labor sphere. This paper presents the results of three successive representative empirical studies of households in Serbia between 1991 and 2006. The main goal of these studies was to observe the problems households and families are facing in the transition process. The specific profile of Serbia's transition path, determined by numerous societal disturbances, is emphasized. The relation between the work sphere and the family sphere is viewed through five forms of the working status and activities of household members. Research results show a remarkable proliferation of informal work activities, which enable the survival of households in the circumstances of high unemployment and low wages in the formal labor sector.

Institutional and infrastructure barriers to competitiveness of the Republic of Serbia

The analyses of the process of transition in Serbia, made by some international institutions and organisations, have shown that the fundamental problems in our economy are ineffective institutions and necessity of overall infrastructure changes. The author considers that any significant economic growth in Serbia in the future is unrealistic in the unfavourable macro- and microeconomic business environment. She emphasises the necessity to implement institutional and infrastructure reforms, which should be the first postulate for growth of productivity and competitiveness of enterprises and national economy.

Vlade Divac: Unfinished transition fairy tale

In this work I try to establish, by analyzing texts about basketball player Vlade Divac, in what way sport press is representing famous individual sport personalities, as well as strategies with which media is representing but also socially constructs specific identification practices, primarily those connected with the concept of national identity. In doing that, I am starting from the fact that professional sportsmen represent typical example of "transnational citizens and global businessmen who simultaneously inhabit both national and transnational space", but at the same time, consciously and seemingly paradoxically can serve as "national cultural icons in the function of forming and reaffirming national identities". Analyzed details from media presentations of Vlade Divca point out that the smallest common denominator that brought to the basketball player such status is the "proven patriotism". The picture being formed about him represents a series of preferred national characteristics, a quintessence of "Serbian people", thanks to which or even in spite of that, he succeeds to overcome, in the perception here, not too positively co notated America. Also, I am trying to point out how media story about well known basketball player has a structure of transitional fairy tale in which Divac is playing the role of "hero" of the still unfinished transition in Serbia.

TRANSITION EFFECTS IN AGRAR IN SOME COUNTRIES OF CENTRAL AND SOUTH-EAST EUROPE

By the end of twentieth century process of transition occurred in countries of formal planned economy and socialistic model of governance. In the analyses of achieved level of progress, three levels can be underlined: - Countries of central Eastern Europe witch accessed European Union in the last wave of accession in 2004. and in witch processes of transition are practically finished, - Countries that are now on doorstep of EU (Romania and Bulgaria), and - Serbia, where transition process are in delay of one decade, from known reasons: country decomposition, war in environment, isolation from international community, NATO actions. This paper works gives overview of applied measures and achieved effects of transition in the area of agrar in listed countries. With significant problems, it is showed that transition in countries that ended this process was successful. Serbia has, in a matter of speaking, stirring times by the end of transition. Experience obtained by countries that finished this process can be still useful for transition in Serbia.

Reform-democratic capacity dynamics during structural changes in transition's subjects

The topic of the article is a problem of real and potential bearers or subjects of transition and their respective reform capacities. The analysis is based on the experience of transition in Serbia in the period of "democratic changes" 2000-2006. The problem is set up with a demarcation between the main transitive social groups, that are seen as a source of the future ruling elite members. A reform capacity of each group is scrutinized on the scale of its possession of three kinds of capital: economic, symbolic and social. The main dynamic process, which was designed for analytical purposes, concerns the mutual influences, alliances and divisions among these groups. These result in huge changes in the structure that is composed by the various amounts of the three kinds of capital. These amounts are changing during that very process and due to these changes, along side with the change of the group's identity, the rise or fall of its reform capacity occurs. The prediction of this capacity is founded in the thesis that maximal reform capacity asks for optimal equilibrium between all three kinds of capital: social, economic and symbolic. A factor, which is constant throughout this dynamics and which could be introduced as a fourth kind of capital, is political capital, and it makes the axis of the whole analysis. This capital (political power) is the instrument for obtaining at last some of the remaining three kinds of capital. Results of this analysis are very helpful in an explanation of the unexpected outcomes of the transition, of the diminishing pace of the very process, of frequent criminal affairs, and of the fall of citizens' confidence in the reform capacities of "democratic forces", or in an explanation of the return of defeated powers as a rule in the second or the third wave of democratic elections. The author believes that results and the explanation that have been given are valuable not only in the case of Serbia, but in the case of many others transitional countries (Russia, Ukraine, The Balkans countries, etc.) .

Political and economic factors of late transition in Serbia

The transition in Serbia is late, from the aspects of both its start and course. The initial conditionality, strategy, sequentially, prospects and results shape transition profile. Key factors of the late transition are grouped within a complex of political and economic factors, which are themselves ambivalent - their external and internal effects are evident. An institutional vacuum is especially limiting complex, with a significant influence on the political and economic aspects of the transition. An analysis of the two groups of intertwined factors serves as a basis for making a projection of future course and reform dynamics in Serbia. Different scenarios are present. An increase or decrease in the transition dynamics is conditioned by elimination of negative impacts of political and economic factors, i.e. by promotion of positive aspects of the solutions.

Status of police reform after four years of democratic transition in Serbia

Status of police reform after four years of democratic transition in Serbia

Strategic framework for sustainable development industry and opportunities for harmonization of Serbia

This paper offers an analysis of the strategic EU's framework in the planinning of sustainable industrial development and possibilities for harmonisation of Serbia. The aim of this analysis is finding an acceptable formulation of new approaches to sustainable industrial planning in relation to the European strategic framework based on the Lisabon Summit (agenda), the European Spatial Development Perspective towards sustainable territorial development EU (ESDP) and possibilities of introducing the EU Directive IPPC in industry (Integrated Pollution Prevention Control) and Directive of the EU Parliament and Council on the assessment of the effects of certain plans and programmes on the environment (SEA -strategic environmental assessment). This paper deals with various strategic frameworks, approaches and aims of sustainable industrial development in the EU and proposes its harmonisation for Serbia in the period of transition towards market economy. The paper also takes into account the advantages and disadvantages of the application of this approach of sustainable industrial planning during the transition in Serbia, and proposes the formulation of new industrial policies that would contain combined elements of market and environmental mechanisms and the way of implementing (standards, indicators, set of various policies, instruments, measures,etc.). Different proposals are offered for strategic planning of territorial industrial development

How the employed understand the process of privatization in Serbia: Regional specificity

Understanding and explanation of the process of transition in Serbia is impossible without an analysis of the scope, the intensity and the way of privatization in Serbian society. However, as privatization has been very chaotic, discontinuous, even "invisible" (half-legal or illegal) so far, the effort to catch it completely is limited only to an attempt only to assume its mentioned characteristics. "Secretiveness" and chaos of the process of privatization, witch started (or, better to say, was intensified) in the time of dramatic destruction of Yugoslav (and Serbian) society (which brought most of the people to the edge of existence), had as its consequence the creation of a negative stereotype connected with "private entrepreneurs" during the 90s. The results of the newer research, as well as the statistical data, show that, in spite of the stereotype, the activity of "private entrepreneurs" has been growing, which leads to the assumption that the understanding of the process of privatization and the relation to it has been changing gradually.

Political culture from generational perspective

The article is based on interpretation of partial results of empirical research on the role of political socialization in the family and its implications on political identity formation process. The research focuses on political socialization effects in the context of social transition in Serbia. The process of identification with social interests and political involvement of adolescents are in close relation with cultural capital in the family - education, social status and background of parents. Political atmosphere in the family and parents' political culture are also influenced by those factors. Intensive political atmosphere has significant impact on adolescents' active involvement in politics, developing their political competency, political efficacy and participative political culture.

Workers’ Power in Transition Economies: the Cases of Serbia and Slovenia

The root of the differences between the successful transition inSlovenia and the abortive transition in Serbia, the impetus for the divorce between Serbia and Slovenia which was the starting point of the disintegration of the former Yugoslav federation, lay in the qualitatively different reactions ofthe Serbian and Slovenian political elites to the workers’ strike movements of the second half of the 1980s and the early 1990s. In Serbia, the political faction which rejected market reform was the political victor. This faction used nationalism as an instrument for aggressive labour pacification. In Slovenia, the option of gradual market reforms won out. This option offered a ‘voice’ to the labour movement.

The Serbian Opposition and Civil Society: Roots of the Delayed Transition in Serbia

The article discusses the reasons for the ten-year delay in the democratic transition in Serbia, focusing in particular on opposition parties and civil society. It argues that the policy of opposition parties was partly responsible for the failure of an earlier fall of the Milosevic regime. While civil society has been similarly weak and divided, the article details how a number of NGOs proved to be crucial in the coordinated campaign which lead to the overthrow of the Milosevic regime in October 2000.