Volume 68, Issue 3

In this introduction, the author contextualises the research into social stratification in Serbia as a long-term project on the transformation of class structure in that country. The researchers in this project have established how the systemic transformation in Serbia unfolded, doubly conditioned by the more general European processes of postsocialist transformation and the specific conditions in Serbia. The surveys on representative samples of the adult population in the whole of Serbia were conducted in 2003/2004, 2012 and 2018. The author lays out the methodological basis andthe contents of the studies included in the special issue.

The authors analyse the economic position of households in Serbia during the recent social transition towards a consolidated capitalist society. Of central importance here is a determination of the overall population’s economic position, with emphasis on the changes during the gradual consolidation of the capitalist order. The study is based on the analysis of statewide representative samples from three comparable research surveys conducted by the Institute for Sociological Research of the University of Belgrade – Faculty of Philosophy in 2003, 2012, and 2018. The analysis yielded results indicating that the economic position of households in Serbia, despite improvement during a recent period of capitalist consolidation (2018) when compared to an earlier period marked by a cyclical economic crisis (2012), is still lower than it had been during the first years of the country’s accelerated postsocialist transformation (2003).

The aim of this article is to provide longitudinal insights into the economic strategies that households from differing social strata have adopted as they attempt to adjust to the changing socio-economic environment of the postsocialist transformation. A survey conducted in 2012 showed a significant decline in proactive economic strategies and a strong reliance on pensions and formal employment, occurring as a result of the 2008 financial crisis. The latest data, from a 2018 survey, show that post-crisis recovery has been followed by a renewal of proactive economic strategies, along with a more diverse range of labour strategies, and that households adopting these are achieving a better economic position. As was the case before the financial crisis, the economic position of households has been strongly influenced by the type of strategy they choose. This has greater significance than their starting position in the social strata.

The subject of this study is work orientations, their change over time, as well as their distribution among the economically active citizens of Serbia. Particular attention is paid to work-motivated spatial mobility. The aim of this study is twofold: firstly, to determine which work orientations have been the most important for economically active individuals in the period of consolidation of the capitalist system in Serbia and to explore and explain the changes in their choices that have occurred since 2000; and secondly, to examine whether there are differences in prioritizing work orientations among actors with various social characteristics. The method of comparative analysis used in this paper was possible due to survey data collected during longitudinal research conducted by the Institute for Sociological Research in Belgrade over the last twenty years.

The authors examine the characteristics and factors shaping political activism in Serbia. Their analysis is based on a national representative sample (N = 2,211). Their research findings show that in general, Serbian citizens are more inclined to pursue certain unconventional or newer forms of political activism such as ethical and political consumption and petition-signing than older forms of political participation. Certain traditional political activities are still practised, such as membership of political parties and making direct contact with politicians, while newer ones like occupation of public spaces and protest activities are relatively rare. The analyses demonstrate that participation in both traditional and newer forms of politics becomes more likely as resources available to individuals increase, both economic and educational. Traditional forms of political participation tend to be increasingly preferred as people become older, while the unconventional forms are more popular among the younger generation.

Based on research data from 2003, 2012, and 2018, the authors examine the extent to which capitalist social relations in Serbia have determined liberal value orientations. The change of the social order in Serbia after 1990 brought about a radical change of the basis upon which values are constituted. To interpret the relationship between structural and value changes, the authors employ the theory of normative-value dissonance. Special attention in the analysis is paid to the interpretation of value changes based on the distinction between intra- and inter-systemic normative-value dissonance. In the first part of their study, the authors examine changes in the acceptance of liberal values over the period of consolidation of capitalism in Serbia, while in the second part they focus on the 2018 data and specific predictors of political and economic liberalism.

The authors analyze the changes in value patterns—patriarchy, authoritarianism and nationalism—in Serbia in the context of the social changes that have marked the postsocialist transformation period. They focus on the extent and intensity of two sub-patterns within each of these three basic value patterns: private and public patriarchy, general and specific authoritarianism, organic (natural) and ethnic nationalism. The conclusions about changes in these value patterns are drawn on the basis of three empirical studies conducted in 2003, 2012, and 2018. They show the prevalence of private patriarchy, general authoritarianism, and organic (natural) nationalism over their counterparts. Private patriarchy has weakened, which is largely to be explained by the significant structural changes in Serbia. On the other hand, support of general authoritarianism and organic (natural) nationalism has been on the rise, which clearly mirrors the unfavorable economic and political situation in the country.

In this scholarly panel, Guido Franzinetti, John Breuilly, Béatrice von Hirschhausen, and Sabine Rutar discuss Diana Mishkova’s monograph Beyond Balkanism. The Scholarly Politics of Region Making , published in the Routledge Borderland Studies series (2018; paperback edition 2020). The panel focuses, from various angles, precisely on how ‘region making’ has been influenced by scholarly politics and other kinds of policy discourses. The take of each author is conditioned by their respective expertise in European and global area studies.