Duration
November 2018 – April 2023
Principal investigator
Igor Duda, PhD, Full Professor
Research group
Chiara Bonfiglioli, PhD, lecturer, University College Cork
Anita Buhin, PhD, external Assistant Professor (CKPIS), postdoctoral researcher (Nova University Lisbon)
Tina Filipović, assistant, doctoral researcher (CKPIS)
Magdalena Najbar-Agičić, PhD, Associate Professor, University North, Koprivnica
Christian Axboe Nielsen, PhD, Associate Professor, University of Aarhus (until 2021)
Saša Vejzagić, PhD, postdoctoral researcher (CKPIS)
Tomislav Branđolica, MA, researcher from 2021 (PhD student, University of Zagreb)
Consultants
Ulf Brunnbauer, PhD, Full Professor, Leibniz Institute for East and Southeast European Studies, Regensburg
Christian Axboe Nielsen, PhD, Associate Professor, University of Aarhus (from 2021)
Financing
Croatian Science Foundation / Hrvatska zaklada za znanost (HRZZ)
Institution
Juraj Dobrila University of Pula
Centre for Cultural and Historical Research of Socialism (CKPIS)
Project description
The 1970s and 1980s were a time in which the Yugoslav socialist system was fully formed, and during which self-management was implemented at all levels, in order for the state to wither away and to leave its powers to self-managed communities and organizations. The municipality was envisioned as a small community in which all the levels of the general socio-political organization were established, only on a microscale. The main academic aim of the project is to unravel the functioning of late socialism through an investigation of social relations and structures in selected municipalities. The project will focus on the role of citizens as self-managers in local communities, on the protection of self-management rights and social property, on public and state security, on local media in charge of creating an image of the community, on the position of organizations of associated labour between economics and politics, on cultural creativity and cultural politics in self-managed communities of interests, on the role of women and women's activism, and on the position and influence of veterans and their organization. A comparative analysis of case studies will shed light on the interplay of relationships that provide insights into issues such as power relations, social networking, the status of guaranteed rights and freedoms, as well as surveillance and compliance with different interests. The methodological approach will rely on social, cultural, political and economic history, the history of everyday life and the history of mentality. It will also establish connections between perspectives from below and perspective from above, as well as between horizontal and vertical communication, connecting microhistory with a macro-historical framework.
Keywords: self-managed socialism, social structure, microhistory, Croatia, history of Yugoslavia.
More on research approach and methodology.
Publications
A monograph, an edited volume and around twenty journal articles are planned by 2023 (list of publications).
Conferences
Around 30 conference presentations by all members of the research group are planned (list of conference presentations).
Events
Project presentations, a conference in Pula in 2022 and other events are planned (news on events and the media coverage).
Lectures, talks, presentations
Brochure Report 2018-2023, in Croatian
Also published in: CKPIS Newsletter, 86, December 2023