Izvorni znanstveni članak
https://doi.org/10.15378/1848-9540.2020.43.01
On the Side of Predictable. Visioning the Future in Serbia
Maja Petrović-Šteger
orcid.org/0000-0002-1750-6812
; Institut za antropološke i prostorne studije ZRC SAZU i Poslijediplomska škola ZRC SAZU, Znanstvenoistraživački centar Slovenske akademije znanosti i umjetnosti, Ljubljana
Jessica Greenberg
; Odsjek za antropologiju, Sveučilište u Illinoisu, Urbana-Champaign
Sanja Potkonjak
orcid.org/0000-0003-1528-0765
; Odsjek za etnologiju i kulturnu antropologiju, Filozofski fakultet, Sveučilište u Zagrebu
Tea Škokić
orcid.org/0000-0002-4013-7875
; Institut za etnologiju i folkloristiku, Zagreb
Ivan Rajković
orcid.org/0000-0002-2667-6637
; Odsjek za socijalnu i kulturnu antropologiju, Fakultet društvenih znanosti, Sveučilište u Beču
Felix Ringel
orcid.org/0000-0003-0841-0648
; Odsjek za antropologiju, Sveučilište u Durhamu
Sažetak
In order to be able to contextualize and understand social worlds, anthropologists pay close attention. We observe how individuals and communities relate to each other and to their ideas. We study the intimate and subjective, as well as the large-scale cosmologies by which people make themselves and the world. Our participatory methods and reflective analysis document the complex, intricate, patterned, and also random aspects of people’s reasoning and actions. These activities, on anthropology’s part, supposedly offer not only critical descriptions of the present (on its historical trajectories), but possible intimations of a society’s future. Anthropological analysis, in other words, not only describes but also anticipates. This position paper focuses on the notions of anticipation, predictability, and possibility in anthropology. It asks what methodological and theoretical assumptions are built into our ways of making predictions about our field sites. It invites the reader to consider the effects certain anticipatory practices have for the people and phenomena we study as well as for the discipline. Centrally, the paper proposes different ways of attending to visions that anticipate the future. By reflecting on my ethnographic and analytical journeys in Serbia, I attempt to explain why I currently make so much of questions of predictability and possibility in both the field and the discipline. My desire is to open up a discussion on the value of cultivating attention to what seems to emerge on the side of predictable.
Ključne riječi
societal self-understanding; social transformations; visionaries; anticipation of future; theoretical assumptions; Serbia
Hrčak ID:
248315
URI
Datum izdavanja:
22.12.2020.
Posjeta: 2.830 *