Original scientific paper
NETWORKS, ORGANISATIONS, MOVEMENTS: NARRATIVES AND SHAPES OF THREE WAVES OF ACTIVISM IN CROATIA
Paul Stubbs
orcid.org/0000-0002-0318-4306
; Institute of Economics in Zagreb
Abstract
This paper explores the narratives, shapes, claims and practices of three waves of activism in Croatia at the interface of peace, human rights, gender equality and social justice. The ‘first wave’ refers to the network of individuals, groups and projects around the “Anti-war Campaign, Croatia“, in the context of prior histories of activism in some urban centres of former Yugoslavia in the late 1980s. The ‘second wave’ addresses the more professionalised and technocratic ‘Non-Governmental Organisations’ under the influence, to an extent, of external donor funding and preference for particular organisational forms and structures. The ‘third wave’ relates to inter-linked activist initiatives and movements including the Zagreb Philosophy Faculty student protests and the movement against the building of a shopping centre in Varšavska street in Zagreb, reflecting struggles against commodification, crony capitalism, and the erosion of the right to public space. The paper explores how far these three waves can be viewed in terms of different generations working according to different scripts, local, national, regional, and global. Utilising participant observation, fragmentary interview material and reflexive ethnography, the paper addresses the social and political impacts of diverse activisms in different conjunctures, contributing to the development of an historical sociology of activism in Croatia.
Keywords
activism; Croatia; generations; scripts
Hrčak ID:
98573
URI
Publication date:
27.12.2012.
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