Project description
Exploring the entrepreneurs of socialist Yugoslavia
While socialist Yugoslavia is famous for workers’ self-management, the role of its private sector remains an untold story. Supported by the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions programme, the PRIVAT-YU project aims to study small business owners and self-employed workers. Using an actor-centred perspective, this project will explore how entrepreneurs negotiated their position towards state officials and social actors in Serbia, Croatia and Kosovo. The project will be based on a combination of archive sources and oral history. The findings will make a valuable contribution to contemporary discussions about the transformation of socialist economies, enhancing our knowledge of European post-war history and small entrepreneurship.
Objective
Socialist Yugoslavia’s experiment with workers’ self-management attracted global attention, yet a key aspect remains underexplored: the role of the private sector. The “privatnici” – self-employed workers and small business owners – occupied an ambiguous position between labour and capital, condemned as ‘speculators with their own labour’ yet also regarded as a potential solution to economic difficulties. Drawing on labour history and debates on regional and social inequalities in socialist Yugoslavia, PRIVAT-YU moves beyond the social-sector focus to introduce privatnici as a new research subject, offering the first comprehensive analysis of their lived experiences. Adopting an actor-centred approach, PRIVAT-YU investigates how privatnici negotiated with local authorities and adapted to shifting policies. Three case studies – farmers in central Serbia, tourist workers on the Croatian coast, and entrepreneurs in Kosovo – highlight regional diversity. The project pursues three objectives: 1) Archival research examines how federal perceptions of privatnici were reflected locally and how social differences (gender, class, rural/urban origin) shaped negotiations with local authorities. 2) Oral history traces entanglements between private and social sectors, asking how and why privatnici combined employment in both or moved between them. 3) Comparative analysis identifies variations across republics and links them to regional inequalities and to differing roles of the private sector. Conducted at the Leibniz Institute for East and Southeast European Studies (IOS) in Regensburg and supervised by Prof. Ulf Brunnbauer, PRIVAT-YU advances the historiography of socialism and adds historical depth to debates on economic restructuring and small entrepreneurship amid today’s polycrisis and its EU dimension. PRIVAT-YU also supports the researcher’s career development, including a mid-term goal of securing an ERC grant and a long-term ambition of founding an institute in Slovenia.
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Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Programme(s)
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Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
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HORIZON.1.2 - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA)
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Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Funding Scheme
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Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
HORIZON-TMA-MSCA-PF-EF - HORIZON TMA MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
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Call for proposal
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(opens in new window) HORIZON-MSCA-2025-PF
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93047 Regensburg
Germany
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