On the Side of Predictable. Visioning the Future in Serbia / O onome što predvidljivo ne obuhvaća. Zamišljanje budućnosti u Srbiji

Authors

  • Maja Petrović-Šteger Institute of Anthropological and Spatial Studies ZRC SAZU and Postgraduate School ZRC SAZU – Research Centre of the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts, Ljubljana, Slovenia
  • Jessica Greenberg Department of Anthropology, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, USA
  • Sanja Potkonjak Department of Ethnology and Cultural Anthropology, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Zagreb, Croatia
  • Tea Škokić Institute of Ethnology and Folklore Research, Zagreb, Croatia
  • Ivan Rajković Department of Social and Cultural Anthropology, Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Vienna, Austria
  • Felix Ringel Department of Anthropology, Durham University, UK

Abstract

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.

 

Da bi mogli kontekstualizirati i razumjeti društvene svjetove, antropolozi pomno promatraju. Promatramo kako se pojedinci i zajednice odnose jedni prema drugima i prema svojim idejama. Proučavamo intimno i subjektivno, kao i kozmologije velikih razmjera pomoću kojih ljudi ostvaruju sebe i svijet. Naše participativne metode i reflektivne analize dokumentiraju kompleksne, zamršene, uobličene, ali i nasumične aspekte ljudskog razmišljanja i djelovanja. U antropologiji takve aktivnosti nude ne samo kritičke opise sadašnjosti (na njihovim povijesnim putanjama) već i moguće nagovještaje budućnosti nekog društva. Drugim riječima, antropološka analiza ne samo da opisuje nego i predviđa. Ovaj rad razmatra ideje predviđanja, procjenjivanja i mogućnosti u antropologiji. Propituje koje su metodološke i teorijske pretpostavke ugrađene u antropološke načine predviđanja, odnosno opisa i posljedične analize naših terena. Istražuje kakve učinke imaju prakse anticipacije, kako na ljude i fenomene koje proučavamo tako i na disciplinu. U središtu rada su prijedlozi različitih načina pristupanja vizijama koje predviđaju budućnost. Reflektirajući o svojim etnografskim i analitičkim putovanjima po Srbiji, nastojim pojasniti zašto sam trenutačno posvećena pitanjima predvidljivosti i mogućnosti i na terenu i u disciplini. Želja mi je potaknuti raspravu o vrijednosti pažnje usmjerene na ono što predvidljivošću ne možemo obuhvatiti.

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Published

2020-12-31

Issue

No. 43 (2020)

Section

Debate

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