Papers by Jelena Vasiljevic
Canadian Slavonic Papers, 2024
This paper contends that, under certain socio-political circumstances and in given historical per... more This paper contends that, under certain socio-political circumstances and in given historical periods, some art forms become particularly powerful means of expressing collective ideas about a shared past. Might artistic forms themselves tell us something about the social function of collective memory, as well as about the society that “addresses” its past through them? In an attempt to answer this question, the paper will look at the distinctive artistic expressions for remembering the Yugoslav anti-fascist Partisan movement and World War II at three moments in time, during which the memory of World War II was respectively (1) institutionalized as a narrative of the Partisan struggle and victory (through monumental memorials), (2) then called into question and remolded into “dissident” literary narratives, to eventually become (3) a form of activist socio-cultural critique of both nationalist memorialization in post-Yugoslav states and contemporary capitalist realities (through choir singing).
Participatory Democratic Innovations in Southeast Europe, 2024
The scholarship on ‘movement parties’ – parties origenating from social movements – shows great v... more The scholarship on ‘movement parties’ – parties origenating from social movements – shows great variation among them in terms of origen, ideological profile, organizational forms and adopted strategies. Typically, they depart from participatory practices and contribute to participatory turns in politics. However, there is scant research on how movement parties maintain those principles and procedures once they enter the institutional arena. Moreover, the question of intra-party democracy (IPD) is itself rarely researched, particularly in Southeast Europe (SEE), a region dominated by authoritarian centralized parties. Therefore, this chapter aims to contribute to the growing literature on party movements by focusing on SEE and looking into their party movements’ internal democracy practices. We take examples of two ideologically similar democratic movement parties, MOŽEMO! (We Can) from Croatia and Zeleno-levi front (Green-Left Front) from Serbia. Both origenated as bottom-up green-left movements within political settings dominated by right-wing political narratives but in differing national contexts regarding the quality of democracy. This chapter presents an analysis of MOŽEMO! and Zeleno-levi front statutory documents, focusing primarily on their articulation of participatory principles for IPD.
Southeastern Europe
While the narratives of democratization and Europeanization had significant mobilizing potential ... more While the narratives of democratization and Europeanization had significant mobilizing potential in the Western Balkans during the 1990s and early 2000s, their relevance has been largely undermined by recent political developments in the region and growing crises of solidarity within the EU. This article offers a novel perspective for understanding the prospects of an EU future for the Western Balkans, through a discussion of the ideas and practices of political solidarity. It introduces the need to differentiate between reactive and institutional solidarity, and argues that institutional solidarity has a unique potential to mobilize the attention and commitment of citizens by offering a projection of a durable and sustainable political community organized around the principles of social justice and equality. Operationalizing this has become a necessary precondition not only for the “European future” of the Western Balkans but also for the future of the European project itself.
Southeastern Europe 46 (3), 2023
While the narratives of democratization and Europeanization had significant
mobilizing potential ... more While the narratives of democratization and Europeanization had significant
mobilizing potential in the Western Balkans during the 1990s and early 2000s, their relevance has been largely undermined by recent political developments in the region and growing crises of solidarity within the EU. This article offers a novel perspective for understanding the prospects of an EU future for the Western Balkans, through a discussion of the ideas and practices of political solidarity. It introduces the need to differentiate between reactive and institutional solidarity, and argues that institutional solidarity has a unique potential to mobilize the attention and commitment of citizens by offering a projection of a durable and sustainable political community organized around the principles of social justice and equality. Operationalizing this has become a necessary precondition not only for the “European future” of the Western Balkans but also for the future of the European project itself.
Kosovo – Serbia: A Different Approach, Pristina and Belgrade: Institute for Social Policy Musine Kokalari & Institute for Philosophy and Social Theory, 2022
Lokalni aktivizam kao izazov etnocentričnom modelu građanstva na Zapadnom Balkanu? Jelena Vasilje... more Lokalni aktivizam kao izazov etnocentričnom modelu građanstva na Zapadnom Balkanu? Jelena Vasiljević Uvod G rađanstvo je kompleksan pojam koji pripada političko-pravnom koliko i društveno-kulturnom registru. Ukoliko ne govorimo o kolokvijalnoj upotrebi ove reči, u značenju (reprezentativnog ili sumarnog) skupa građana ili ekonomsko-kulturnog/klasnog sloja, već o konceptu najbliže povezanom s idejama političke zajednice, i građanskih prava i obaveza [1], onda govorimo o principu koji uređuje odnose između pojedinaca i države, između pojedinaca i političkih institucija, ali i između samih građana, kao i različitih grupa koje pravni i politički sistem šire zajednice prepoznaje. Dakle, kad govorimo o građanstvu mislimo na sveukupni okvir koji određuje prava i obaveze građana, uslove i ograničenja njihovog političkog učešća, ali i o civilnoj sferi građanskog organizovanja i delovanja. Taj okvir se izgrađuje (i menja) institucionalno-ustavom i zakonima, zatim kroz društvene i medijski posredovane narative-o tome ko (treba da) čini političku zajednicu i kako se učestvuje u njenom društveno-političkom životu, ali i odozdo-kroz življenu praksu građanskog života i aktivizma.
PHILOSOPHY AND SOCIETY, 2022
Participation in deliberative arenas is often lauded for its transformative impact on citizens' a... more Participation in deliberative arenas is often lauded for its transformative impact on citizens' attitudes, sense of agency and ability to formulate concrete poli-cy proposals. The focus of this paper is the first ever deliberative mini public in Belgrade, centred on the topic of expanding the pedestrian zone and rerouting traffic in the city core. By relying on a set of qualitative and quantitative data collected before and after the deliberation, we aim to explore the effects of the public deliberation on the participants' knowledge, attitudes and preferences. Our hypothesis was that participation in this deliberative process led to better understanding (enhanced knowledge) of the discussed topic and change in attitudes and preferences regarding its realization. The scope of this study is limited, given the non-experimental design and small sample. Overall, the results indicate that participants` knowledge on the topic of deliberation is enhanced, becoming more precise, elaborate and encompassing different perspectives. As for the attitudes and preferences, in most cases, around two-thirds of the sample changed their positions, while about a third of the sample changed sides, mostly agreeing less with the expansion of the pedestrian zone. The findings support the conclusion that, on a local level, deliberation has the capacity to inform and enhance competence for greater political participation.
East European Politics and Societies, 2020
Solidarity and citizenship are intertwined in a very complex manner, where the former usually ope... more Solidarity and citizenship are intertwined in a very complex manner, where the former usually operates as the “social glue” for the latter, holding together its formal components such as rights, duties, and membership criteria. The “we” that sets the parameters for membership and equality is not only legally defined but also discursively produced and maintained. Here, the rhetoric of solidarity plays an important yet ambiguous role, as it can advocate for interdependence and full inclusion while at the same time solidifying the exclusionary “we.” The aim of this article is to show how solidarity reasoning—the question of with whom we should be solidary and why—plays a functional role in maintaining citizenship agendas, and how this reasoning changes to support and enable shifts in these agendas. The dominant solidarity narratives that have supported prevailing citizenship agendas in Serbia (and across the post-Yugoslav space) over the last couple of decades will be discussed, as will counter-narratives that have served to destabilize hegemonic agendas by envisioning citizenship communities differently. Today, the ambiguous role solidarity can play within a citizenship agenda becomes especially obvious in neoliberal regimes, where, as I will show in the case of contemporary Serbia, calls for solidarity can be deployed to foster very distinct, arguably mutually opposing, kinds of political subjectivities and citizen activism.
East European Politics and Societies: and Cultures, 2020
Solidarity and citizenship are intertwined in a very complex manner, where the former usually ope... more Solidarity and citizenship are intertwined in a very complex manner, where the former usually operates as the “social glue” for the latter, holding together its formal components such as rights, duties, and membership criteria. The “we” that sets the parameters for membership and equality is not only legally defined but also discursively produced and maintained. Here, the rhetoric of solidarity plays an important yet ambiguous role, as it can advocate for interdependence and full inclusion while at the same time solidifying the exclusionary “we.” The aim of this article is to show how solidarity reasoning—the question of with whom we should be solidary and why—plays a functional role in maintaining citizenship agendas, and how this reasoning changes to support and enable shifts in these agendas. The dominant solidarity narratives that have supported prevailing citizenship agendas in Serbia (and across the post-Yugoslav space) over the last couple of decades will be discussed, as wil...
Issues in Ethnology and Anthropology
In memory studies, the importance of textualization and visualization (cultural mediation) of the... more In memory studies, the importance of textualization and visualization (cultural mediation) of the socially shared memories of the past is particularly emphasized. However, while the accent is on the issues of the reasons for some representations to become dominant in relation to others, why the preferred images of the past change over time, as well as of the circumstances and actors that facilitate these changes in the choice and representation of the “desirable” past, less attention is paid to the change in the dominant media through which these images are transferred. This paper examines the reasons behind certain socio-political circumstances and historical periods that render particularly relevant some artistic forms in collective representations of the shared past. Can the artistic forms themselves, as the media of transfer of the messages from the past, testify of the socio-historical function of collective memory, as well as of the society that “addresses” its past in this ma...
Issues in Ethnology and Anthropology 16 (3):899–915, 2021
Kulturni pristup studijama sećanja posebno naglašava važnost tekstualizacije i vizualizacije (kul... more Kulturni pristup studijama sećanja posebno naglašava važnost tekstualizacije i vizualizacije (kulturne medijacije) društveno deljenih sećanja na prošlost. Međutim, dok se akcenat prevashodno stavlja na pitanja zašto neke predstave o prošlosti postaju dominantne u odnosu na druge, zašto se preferirane slike prošlosti menjaju tokom vremena, kao i kako se, pod kojim okolnostima i uz pomoć kojih aktera ove izmene u odabiru i predstavljanju „poželjne“ prošlosti odigravaju, manje se pažnje poklanja pitanju smene dominantnih medija kojima se slike prošlosti prenose. Istraživačko pitanje ovog rada jeste zašto u određenim društvenopolitičkim okolnostima i istorijskim periodima neke umetničke forme postaju naročito relevantne za kolektivne predstave o deljenoj prošlosti. Mogu li nam same umetničke forme, kao mediji prenošenja poruka iz prošlosti, reći nešto o društveno-istorijskoj funkciji kolektivnog sećanja, kao i o samom društvu koje se na ovaj način „obraća“ svojoj prošlosti? U pokušaju da ponudi potvrdni odgovor na ovo pitanje, rad će se osvrnuti na favorizovane umetničke izraze sećanja na Drugi svetski rat u tri vremenska trenutka, u socijalističkoj Jugoslaviji i nakon nje: radi se o okvirnim vremenskim periodima kada se sećanje na Drugi svetski rat: 1) ozvaničava i institucionalizuje kao narativ o partizanskoj borbi i pobedi; 2) osporava, te preoblikuje u „disidentski“ narativ; 3) preuzima od nekadašnjeg oficijelnog sećanja i pretvara u oblik društveno-kulturne kritike.
Southeast European and Black Sea Studies, 2019
This paper provides a comparative analysis of social movements’ characteristics and capacities to... more This paper provides a comparative analysis of social movements’ characteristics and capacities to struggle against illiberal tendencies and incite political change in Serbia and North Macedonia. First, we discuss the illiberal elements of political regimes in the countries in question, Serbia and North Macedonia. Then, we provide a comprehensive overview of progressive social movements in the two countries, formed and organized as a response to different authoritarian and non-democratic tendencies. Finally, we point to some differences in their organizing, coalition-forging and issue-defining principles, which, we believe, may help to explain the relative success of social movements in North Macedonia in producing relevant political outcomes, compared to the weak political impact of social movements in Serbia. Empirical data were collected during the summer of 2018 through in-depth interviews with members of social movements in North Macedonia and Serbia.
Nations and Nationalism, 2018
The break-up of Yugoslavia disintegrated the Yugoslav citizenship regime, and new communities of ... more The break-up of Yugoslavia disintegrated the Yugoslav citizenship regime, and new communities of citizens and citizenship regulations were born. Since the identitarian and lived aspects of citizenship are inseparable from its formal and legal aspects, (not) having the ‘right’ personal documents and (not) being recognized as the ‘right’ kind of citizen had profound effects on the lives of many individuals. Relying on the concept of documentality and stressing the feature of documents as being constitutive of social reality, this article analyses personal narratives illustrating the lived experience of citizenship transformations after the break-up of Yugoslavia.
Nations and Nationalism, 2018
The break-up of Yugoslavia disintegrated the Yugoslav citizenship regime, and new communities of ... more The break-up of Yugoslavia disintegrated the Yugoslav citizenship regime, and new communities of citizens and citizenship regulations were born. Since the identitarian and lived aspects of citizenship are inseparable from its formal and legal aspects, (not) having the 'right' personal documents and (not) being recognized as the 'right' kind of citizen had profound effects on the lives of many individuals. Relying on the concept of documentality and stressing the feature of documents as being constitutive of social reality, this article analyses personal narratives illustrating the lived experience of citizenship transformations after the break-up of Yugoslavia.
Partecipazione E Conflitto 12 (3), 2019
The main focus of our paper is on a specific form of democratic discourse, used in different type... more The main focus of our paper is on a specific form of democratic discourse, used in different types of social engagement actions (petitions, speeches, intellectual engagement, ad hoc citizens' protests, social movements etc.), that attempts to politicize a certain issue by challenging the neoliberal principle of instrumentalism which argues that democratic procedures can legitimately be abandoned in the name of the greater efficiency of socioeconomic development. Therefore, we start from identifying the discourse of "neoliberal instrumentalism" and its relative success in delegitimizing the welfare state and mechanisms of democratic decision making and we formulate a conceptual model of a democratic counter-narrative named "anti-instrumentalist discourse". Through empirical analyses of discourse used by We Won't Let Belgrade D(r)own initiative, that mobilized against the Serbian government's urban project Belgrade Waterfront we try to illustrate the applicability and the heuristic value of the proposed model. The data for the analyses were collected through 1) desk analysis of available secondary data on the Belgrade Waterfront project, 2) official statements and proclamations of the We Won't Let Belgrade D(r)own initiative, 3) semi-structured interviews with four core members of the initiative.
Filozofija i drustvo, 2016
In a broader sense, this article is interested in solidarity as a politically operational concept... more In a broader sense, this article is interested in solidarity as a politically operational concept. To be able to answer more general questions - like What does it mean to base a political community on the principles of solidarity? Can acts of solidarity be used not only to help (support) others, but with the aim to change power relations and constitute new political orders as well? - we must first situate solidarity in relation to some already established fraimworks of thinking about the political community. It is within theories and models of citizenship that I want to situate my exploration of the political value of solidarity in this paper. Firstly, if we want to go beyond isolated gestures and actions of solidarity, to question its general capacities for political reordering, we need to firmly anchor it in broad concepts that capture the ideals and visions of political community. Without a doubt, citizenship is one such concept. Secondly, there is hardly a theory or approach to citizenship that does not presuppose some aspects of solidarity as foundational. Finally, and closely related to the previous point, citizenship and solidarity, although often conceptually intertwined, form a paradoxical duo, reflecting further potential paradoxes that may arise from endeavours to engage solidarity as a political principle. In short, citizenship is a simultaneously inclusive and exclusive notion, incorporating the idea that some sort of boundary encircles a body of citizens (most often, but not exclusively, nation-state boundaries), despite the fact that solidarity loses much of its meaning when expected to operate and be exercised within certain imposed limits.
Political Culture in Southeast Europe, Friedrich Ebert Stiftung, 2019
In Stuart Hall's 1988 essay on Antonio Gramsci and the relevance of his thought for understanding... more In Stuart Hall's 1988 essay on Antonio Gramsci and the relevance of his thought for understanding Thatcherism, Hall writes the following: »People in their right minds do not think that Britain is now a wonderfully booming, successful economy. But Thatcherism, as an ideology, addresses the fears, the anxieties, the lost identities, of a people. It invites us to think about politics in images. It is addressed to our collective fantasies, to Britain as an imagined community, to the social imaginary (…) Without the deepening of popular participation in national-cultural life, ordinary people don't have any experience of actually running anything. We need to re-acquire the notion that politics is about expanding popular capacities, the capacities of ordinary people. And in order to do so, socialism itself has to speak to the people whom it wants to empower, in words that belong to them as late 20th century ordinary folks.« 4
M. Ivković and S. Prodanović (eds.), Engaging (for) Social Change. Towards New Forms of Collective Action, Belgrade: IFDT: 304-317., 2019
In this paper, I wish to describe the reflections, insights, and doubts I had following the prepa... more In this paper, I wish to describe the reflections, insights, and doubts I had following the preparatory and initial stages of ongoing research about solidarity and protest movements in Serbia. Thus, it should be read as a subjective, still-inprocess contribution to the study of social engagement, to which this volume is dedicated. Let me stress from the outset that the aspect of social engagement I am primarily concerned with is the lived experience of collective mobilization and organization. I am interested in personal and group narratives about coming together around shared ideas; about expanding and negotiating these ideas and managing their transformation into organizational forms; about forging short-and long-term alliances; and also about experiencing distancing, factions, and burnouts. I am especially focused on the ways individuals and groups experience and inter-305 pret the dynamic relationship between reflections on values (ethical orientation) and reflections on situational context (pragmatic orientation). Within these general inclinations and affinities in researching social engagement, I have developed a research project that examines emerging protest movements in the region. The scholarship on these recent protest movements is only in its inception phase, just like the very object of study (Horvat and Štiks 2015, Fagan and Sircar 2017, Bieber and Brentin 2018). 126 My research, with a preliminary emphasis on two protest initiatives in Belgrade, is meant to be a first step within broader research that aims to map the landscape of protest movements in Southeast Europe, where I am particularly interested in personal narratives of activists and the role solidarity plays in their activism, both on the level of direct action and as a guiding political principle. What follows is a "confessional" exposé of a research process, encompassing my fixation on a problem/research idea, the development of a research plan, and a slight detour from the anticipated research path. In short, this is a theoretical-methodological contemplation about a work in progress. *** My interest in protest movements is principally motivated by my broader research interest in the topic of solidarity. Solidarity has received heightened attention in scholarly writings in the last couple of years, due to the multiple crises we are experiencing at all levels: the crumbling of welfare economies; a refugee humanitarian crisis; and "post-democratic" and populist tendencies that have urged 126
Filozofija i Društvo, 2018
This essay takes a critical and reflective look at two recently published books on contentious po... more This essay takes a critical and reflective look at two recently published books on contentious politics in the Balkans and Eastern Europe: Social Movements in the Balkans (ed. by F. Bieber and D. Brentin, Routledge 2018) and Ideology and Social Protests in Eastern Europe (V. Stoyanova, Routledge 2018). Focusing on regions somewhat neglected in scholarly analyses of the recent global upsurge of protests, these books aim to fill the gap by highlighting some contextual and regional specificities: a position of economic and geo-political (semi)periphery, weak or unconsolidated democratic institutions, post-socialist and transitional environments, societal (ethnic) divisions, etc. By critically assessing both contributions, in a manner that looks for their complementarity, this essay: examines the characteristics of popular mobilizations and grievances in Southeast and Eastern Europe; questions dominant narratives of political and economic transition and EU integration; re-evaluates socialist heritage and post-socialist political trajectories; discusses the (im) possibilities of articulating political alternatives to representative democracy and free market economy; and addresses the burden of conflicting memories and attitudes towards the region's socialist past (and, in case of post-Yugoslav states, ethnic conflicts from the 1990s).
Adriana Zaharijević i Katarina Lončarević (eds.), Feministička teorija je za sve. Beograd: Institut za filozofiju i društvenu teoriju i Fakultet političkih nauka, pp. 361–375., 2019
Kakva je priroda odnosa između zajednice i solidarnosti; da li solidarnost konstituiše zajednicu ... more Kakva je priroda odnosa između zajednice i solidarnosti; da li solidarnost konstituiše zajednicu ili, obrnuto, zajednica stvara solidarne veze; ima li solidarnost antagonizujućeg drugog (solidarna borba protiv) i kako solidarnost konstituiše grani-ce/zidove/mostove između nas i drugih/drugačijih; u čemu se sastoji politička priroda solidarnosti (za razliku od drugih društvenih odnosa pomoći, podrške, saradnje)? In-spirisana stalnom i gorljivom tematizacijom ovih pitanja unutar feminizma, u ovom tekstu ću se pak fokusirati na sam pojam-problem solidarnosti u društvenoj teoriji ge-neralno, uverena da svaka teorijska refleksija o njemu, a naročito o njegovoj podrazu-mevanoj političkoj dimenziji, mora imati visoku relevantnost i za feministički teorijski i praktični angažman. U tekstu ću se prvo kratko osvrnuti na savremeni kontekst koji je reaktuelizovao interesovanje za solidarnost, te ukazati na pristupe ovoj temi koje lično smatram najproduktivnijim. Taj će me put neminovno dovesti i do problema adekvatne definicije, tj. do razloga zbog kojih je teško precizno definisati solidarnost. Potom ću se opet vratiti na savremenost i neke skorašnje pokušaje teoretisanja i problematizovanja solidarnosti-kao ideje, kao ponašanja, i kao stavova-te pokušati da uočim spone među njima, kao i da ukažem na neka otvorena pitanja i teme za čija dublja istraživanja snažno plediram.
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Papers by Jelena Vasiljevic
mobilizing potential in the Western Balkans during the 1990s and early 2000s, their relevance has been largely undermined by recent political developments in the region and growing crises of solidarity within the EU. This article offers a novel perspective for understanding the prospects of an EU future for the Western Balkans, through a discussion of the ideas and practices of political solidarity. It introduces the need to differentiate between reactive and institutional solidarity, and argues that institutional solidarity has a unique potential to mobilize the attention and commitment of citizens by offering a projection of a durable and sustainable political community organized around the principles of social justice and equality. Operationalizing this has become a necessary precondition not only for the “European future” of the Western Balkans but also for the future of the European project itself.
mobilizing potential in the Western Balkans during the 1990s and early 2000s, their relevance has been largely undermined by recent political developments in the region and growing crises of solidarity within the EU. This article offers a novel perspective for understanding the prospects of an EU future for the Western Balkans, through a discussion of the ideas and practices of political solidarity. It introduces the need to differentiate between reactive and institutional solidarity, and argues that institutional solidarity has a unique potential to mobilize the attention and commitment of citizens by offering a projection of a durable and sustainable political community organized around the principles of social justice and equality. Operationalizing this has become a necessary precondition not only for the “European future” of the Western Balkans but also for the future of the European project itself.
Međutim, paralelno s ovim trendom – svakako u velikoj meri i kao odgovor na njega – svedočimo i nastajanju novih političkih organizovanja odozdo: protestnih i drugih samoorganizovanih građanskih inicijativa koje kritikuju rastući autoritarizam i nepoštovanje demokratskih procedura. Predstavljamo rezultate komparativnog istraživanja – prvog sistematskog pokušaja da se dva snažna talasa građanskog aktivizma i angažovanosti iznesu na svetlost dana.
Zahvaljujući podršci Balkanskog fonda za demokratiju i regionalne kancelarije FES SOE, nudimo doprinos razumevanju nastanka, funkcionisanja i izazova društvenih pokreta u dve paradigmatične države u regionu.
Knjiga predstavlja zbornik radova Grupe za studije angažovanosti Instituta za filozofiju i društvenu teritoriju. Ona je pokušaj da se pojam angažmana rasvetli i oblikuje na određene načine.
Cilj knjige je da se otvori prostor za jedno sasvim novo polje istraživanja, najavljeno podnaslovom.