Paper short abstract:

This paper zooms in on lifeworlds of two heterogenous populations in contemporary Serbia, the educated urban middle-class and new immigrant population from Russia to critically explore the conundrum of indifference, class and authoritarianism.

Paper long abstract:

This paper zooms in on lifeworlds of two heterogenous populations in contemporary Serbia, the educated urban middle-class and new immigrant population from Russia. The paper’s entry point is the urban context of the contemporary Serbian capital, Belgrade, which is currently experiencing a radical demographic transformation due the arrival of (forced) migrants (Ukraine/Russia, Middle East, Africa) and labour populations from the Global South, as well as returnees from western Europe. Furthermore, Belgrade represents an interesting vantage point to explore urban social arenas of long-term and exhausted anti-authoritarian engagements in contemporary (Southeastern) Europe. Rather than reproducing the hegemonic imagined geography of south-east European "peripheries", the paper explores transformations of the Serbian capital as exemplifying the shifting nature of Europe as a locus of imigration and „good life“.

The two mentioned populations and a comparative assessment of their reasonings and practices are especially interesting for several reasons. They both share a privileged position under conditions of surviving authoritarian regimes, and can often afford to encounter the hardships of every-day life under authoritarianism with partial indifference and engage when seen as meaningful. At the same time there is a „common sense“ claim to themselves represent the „natural“ driving force of societal change and anti-authoritarianism, which potentially others working-class and immigrant populations as system-complicit and representing the „background“ of social change.

The paper is based on on-going ethnographic research and will dwell into the social circles, ideological reasonings and practices of the two populations to critically explore the conundrum of indifference, class and authoritarianism.