This paper explores the emergence of coworking spaces in Slovenia in the 2010s as a response to e... more This paper explores the emergence of coworking spaces in Slovenia in the 2010s as a response to economic pressures and youth culture fads and explores the distinction between self-generated and top-down developed coworking spaces. While the former were created by young activists, whose endeavours were rooted in identifying with particular modes of sociality, work, and local belonging, the latter point to a new systemic interest in youth. This interest - alongside other shifts in spatialization by young people and of them - indicates a historical change in social value ascribed to the youth. This value is founded on an ascribed entrepreneurial ability.
This paper is about the young entrepreneur as an emerging social agent in contemporary Slovenia. ... more This paper is about the young entrepreneur as an emerging social agent in contemporary Slovenia. Young entrepreneurs are affected by both an ideal sociality of entrepreneurial ecosystems and the small scale of their environment. This paper argues that while the former is promoted as a tool for strengthening local communities and a means of moving toward a prosperous future, the later prevents its actualization but provides security for young people. Family and other established social relationships are of considerable importance for maintaining young entrepreneurs' careers.
This paper explores how wildlife's purposeful migrations across the Hungarian-Slovenian border en... more This paper explores how wildlife's purposeful migrations across the Hungarian-Slovenian border engenders relations between nonhumans and humans and stimulates people's borderwork activities. Following a lead from Stef Jansen's argument about the incompatibility of symmetrical and asymmetrical treatment of humans and nonhumans, the author performs a two-step analysis of animals' involvement in borderwork.
This paper presents an asymmetry of meanings and values that different human agents who occupy th... more This paper presents an asymmetry of meanings and values that different human agents who occupy the same geographical space ascribe to distinct wildlife species. This asymmetry is the result of these agents’ roles in the area and their contrasting epistemologies. The agents in question comprise the Goričko Nature Park as a conservation institution and inhabitants of the park, especially farmers. In most parks, the relationship between professionals and inhabitants is crucial to the park’s sustainability. Therefore, the aim of the paper is to point at a selected neuralgic point which divides the two. At stake is that both agents ascribe importance to wildlife species, but to different ones and for different reasons. While the park focuses on protected species, inhabitants are occupied with non-protected ones. Whereas the park projects positive values on species of its concern, inhabitants ascribe negative characteristics to species of their concern. The paper illustrates these disparate attitudes to wildlife and calls for a less biased park agenda which could benefit the park’s conservation project, yet it also acknowledges the lack of resources which hinders the park in properly fulfilling its role in the local web of relationships.
Scholars perceived the sevdalinka in exile as an evident expression of refugees’ Bosnian identity... more Scholars perceived the sevdalinka in exile as an evident expression of refugees’ Bosnian identity. Although this aspect might be important, we think that identity dimension of the sevdalinka was overemphasised. That is why we point at the appearance of the sevdalinka in Slovenia as a complex process of experiencing uncertainty and trauma of forced migration on the one hand, and youth creativity or a search for expressive freedom on the other. Hence, we aim to move focus from the refugees’ music life as collective experience to personal, highly individualised narratives. In addition, we argue that musical activities were in many aspects organised. In these activities ethnomusicologists participated, therefore the work of applied ethnomusicology, together with its practice of strategic essentialisation of music, should be discussed as integral part of refugees' music making process.
Gender and Music-Making in Exile: Female Bosnian Refugee Musicians in Slovenia This article explo... more Gender and Music-Making in Exile: Female Bosnian Refugee Musicians in Slovenia This article explores the role of Bosnian refugee women in the music-making and organisational activities of two refugee bands (Dertum and Vali) in Slovenia in the early 1990s. Endorsing the ideas about the transformative power of art and looking beyond the dominant identitarian doxa that views music-making in exile as simply the preservation of the ethnic/national identity in a new context, the article places particular emphasis on the active role of women as creative agents of social change. It traces their role ethnographically not only in the process of reinvention of a traditional musical genre (the sevdalinka), but also in identity negotiations and transformation of the gender and power relations within and beyond the boundaries of the heterogeneous Bosnian refugee community, which had been shaped by the strict Slovenian migration policy. IZVLEČEK Spol in glasbeno ustvarjanje v begunstvu: Bosansko-hercegovske glasbenice begunke v Sloveniji Članek obravnava vlogo bosansko-hercegovskih begunk v organizacijskih dejavnostih in glasbenem ustvarjanju dveh begunskih glasbenih skupin (Dertum in Vali) v Sloveniji z začetka devetdesetih let. Ob upoštevanju idej o transformativni moči umetnosti in sočasnem zavračanju identitarne dokse, ki begunsko ustvarjalnost največkrat reducira na begunske težnje po ohranjanju nacionalne/etnič-ne identitete v novih kontekstih, članek prikaže begunske ženske kot kreativne akterke družbenih sprememb. Etnografsko zasleduje njihovo vlogo pri transformaciji tradicionalnega glasbenega žan-ra – sevdalinke, prav tako pa pokaže na njihovo moč pri identitetnih pogajanjih ter spremembah razmerij moči ter razmerij med spoloma, in sicer tako znotraj heterogene bosansko-hercegovske begunske skupnosti kot tudi onkraj njenih – z migracijsko politiko – začrtanih meja. KLJUČNE BESEDE: begunke, glasbeno ustvarjanje, umetnost in sprememba, odnosi med spoloma, sev-dalinka, Bosna in Hercegovina, Slovenija
Sounds of Attraction: Yugoslav and Post-Yugoslav Popular Music (eds. Miha Kozorog & Rajko Muršič). Ljubljana: Ljubljana University Press, Faculty of Arts, 2017
The paper 'Doubly Excluded, Doubly Included, “Something In-Between”: A Bosnian Refugee Band and A... more The paper 'Doubly Excluded, Doubly Included, “Something In-Between”: A Bosnian Refugee Band and Alternative Youth Culture in Slovenia' is about a group of young Bosnian refugees who – after the breakup of Yugoslavia and the ensuing war in Bosnia-Herzegovina – migrated to Slovenia and formed a punk rock band called Nešto između (Something In-Between) at the Ilirska Bistrica refugee centre. The memoirs, as well as the artistic expression of the band, provide a portrait of how nonconformist and perhaps rebellious youth confronted the exile.
This article explores some of the musical practices of Bosnian refugees in post-Yugoslav Slovenia... more This article explores some of the musical practices of Bosnian refugees in post-Yugoslav Slovenia in the mid-1990s and aims to improve understandings of music in transit and in precarious times. In particular, the article traces the effects of common Yugoslav history on the popularisation of Sevdalinka in Slovenia and the efforts of refugee and local musicians to make a new home together after the breakup of Yugoslavia.
This article explores sevdalinka as regional musical genre that represents contradictory ideologi... more This article explores sevdalinka as regional musical genre that represents contradictory ideological positions. The focus is on the various celebrities’ discourses with obvious political connotations that have been productive in the making of sevdalinka in past and present Bosnian-Herzegovinian contexts.
This article explores three recent representations of the First World War—specifically of the Iso... more This article explores three recent representations of the First World War—specifically of the Isonzo Front—in Slovenian popular music. It considers the works of Rodoljubac, Bakalina, and Bratko Bibič. These musicians and music collectives share a connection to the historical region of the Isonzo Front. The article investigates how these musicians’ knowledge of place informed their compositions. Four ways of knowing a place are identified, distributed to varying degrees among the musicians: absorbing locally shared narratives about a place, engagement with landscapes and the environment, personal memories, and analyzing and reconsidering a place. The article contributes to the literature on the involvement of music in the production of place by examining the multitude of ways of knowing a place.
This article discusses the motivations that have prompted a selected group of dairy farmers to tr... more This article discusses the motivations that have prompted a selected group of dairy farmers to transition from conventional to organic farming. Two locations in (pre-)Alpine Slovenia, both exhibiting less-favoured conditions for agriculture, were ethnographically studied. This article juxtaposes two different processes of conversion to organic farming: one taking place in the village of Čadrg, where farmers had taken up organic farming collectively before Slovenia entered the EU in 2004, and other in Škofja Loka Mountains, where farmers had individually gone into conversion after accession to the EU. The comparison indicates diverse circumstances of conversion in the same national context and illustrates differences and similarities in personal motivations as well structural conditions for conversion. The authors agree that a complex entanglement of factors influence farmers’ adoption of organic farming. Nevertheless, the comparison suggests an essential difference between individual and collective conversion to the organic mode of agricultural production.
Triglav National Park is the largest protected area in Slovenia that is established for the conse... more Triglav National Park is the largest protected area in Slovenia that is established for the conservation of an area’s natural and cultural heritage. However, it is also destined for recreation that is subject to specic regulations in order to respect certain environmental guidelines. This ethnographic paper discusses strategies mountain bikers employ to negotiate the existing rules regarding the recreational use of the park’s lands; in addition, the authors propose solutions to diminish their demands with the aim of ensuring quiet space for the park’s wildlife.
The article explores perceptions and representations of a protected area as an “adventurescape,” ... more The article explores perceptions and representations of a protected area as an “adventurescape,” as expressed by various social groups, and analyses how such perceptions are instrumentalized, mostly by the tourism industry, to ease environmental restrictions at a sensitive time when legislation regarding the protection of “natural environments” in Slovenia (ZON 1999), and Triglav National Park (TNP) in particular (TNP Management Plan 2012), is being modified and jointly constructed. It complements more quantitatively oriented studies and offers qualitative insights into (possible ways of) managing protected areas and into the relationship between environmental conservation, ecology, and tourism.
The article investigates the conditions which contributed to the Slovenian town of Tolmin becomin... more The article investigates the conditions which contributed to the Slovenian town of Tolmin becoming a ‘festival town’. On the basis of a study of a palette of festivals, the distinction is made between festivals which originate outside the area, are designed to make a profit and therefore involve large numbers, and festivals with a background in locality (in reference to Arjun Appadurai, ‘locality’ is here primarily understood in connection to identification). The article argues that the two festival concepts both contribute to the production of locality, but in different ways.
The Ritual Year 8: Migrations (The Yearbook of the SIEF Working Group on The Ritual Year), Sofia, 2014
The article discusses the agency of the public arts event ‘Topolo Station’ in relation to the ‘re... more The article discusses the agency of the public arts event ‘Topolo Station’ in relation to the ‘remote area’ of Slavia Friulana in northeast Italy on the Italian-Slovenian border. Various aspects of the area are analysed by using Edwin Ardener’s theory of ‘remoteness’. The area’s history is also described, with a focus on mass emigration, ethnic conflict, and the Cold War. The event is discussed as an event that models lived reality to stimulate the production of a more cosmopolitan place.
Ethnographies of mobility: Book of proceedings, 2013
This paper discusses the activities of jazz festival organisers in the town of Cerkno, Slovenia. ... more This paper discusses the activities of jazz festival organisers in the town of Cerkno, Slovenia. The organisers act on the basis of local affiliation, but with a view to transcend existing local conditions. As regards the latter, I consider experiences concerning the emigration of coevals. The organisers aim to transform these conditions by attracting people, media and employing cosmopolitan aesthetics. As the aim of the festival is to create a more cosmopolitan environment, I label the organisers locals-cosmopolitans. However, as they are only partially successful, but periodically repetitive in their doing, the festival can also be defined as, in Hirokazu Miyazaki’s terms, their 'method of hope'.
The article proceeds from four different but equally important concepts of scene by the authors J... more The article proceeds from four different but equally important concepts of scene by the authors John Irwin, Barry Shank, Will Straw, and Keith Harris. On the basis of these authors’ formulations, some essential elements for conceptualizing scenes are developed – interaction, communication, identity, and local and supralocal spaces. The four authors’ definitions are elaborated comparatively, and certain problems in the operationalisation of the concept are discussed. The authors of this article propose their own definition of the concept of scene, which is based on communication around core or important “things”.
This paper explores the emergence of coworking spaces in Slovenia in the 2010s as a response to e... more This paper explores the emergence of coworking spaces in Slovenia in the 2010s as a response to economic pressures and youth culture fads and explores the distinction between self-generated and top-down developed coworking spaces. While the former were created by young activists, whose endeavours were rooted in identifying with particular modes of sociality, work, and local belonging, the latter point to a new systemic interest in youth. This interest - alongside other shifts in spatialization by young people and of them - indicates a historical change in social value ascribed to the youth. This value is founded on an ascribed entrepreneurial ability.
This paper is about the young entrepreneur as an emerging social agent in contemporary Slovenia. ... more This paper is about the young entrepreneur as an emerging social agent in contemporary Slovenia. Young entrepreneurs are affected by both an ideal sociality of entrepreneurial ecosystems and the small scale of their environment. This paper argues that while the former is promoted as a tool for strengthening local communities and a means of moving toward a prosperous future, the later prevents its actualization but provides security for young people. Family and other established social relationships are of considerable importance for maintaining young entrepreneurs' careers.
This paper explores how wildlife's purposeful migrations across the Hungarian-Slovenian border en... more This paper explores how wildlife's purposeful migrations across the Hungarian-Slovenian border engenders relations between nonhumans and humans and stimulates people's borderwork activities. Following a lead from Stef Jansen's argument about the incompatibility of symmetrical and asymmetrical treatment of humans and nonhumans, the author performs a two-step analysis of animals' involvement in borderwork.
This paper presents an asymmetry of meanings and values that different human agents who occupy th... more This paper presents an asymmetry of meanings and values that different human agents who occupy the same geographical space ascribe to distinct wildlife species. This asymmetry is the result of these agents’ roles in the area and their contrasting epistemologies. The agents in question comprise the Goričko Nature Park as a conservation institution and inhabitants of the park, especially farmers. In most parks, the relationship between professionals and inhabitants is crucial to the park’s sustainability. Therefore, the aim of the paper is to point at a selected neuralgic point which divides the two. At stake is that both agents ascribe importance to wildlife species, but to different ones and for different reasons. While the park focuses on protected species, inhabitants are occupied with non-protected ones. Whereas the park projects positive values on species of its concern, inhabitants ascribe negative characteristics to species of their concern. The paper illustrates these disparate attitudes to wildlife and calls for a less biased park agenda which could benefit the park’s conservation project, yet it also acknowledges the lack of resources which hinders the park in properly fulfilling its role in the local web of relationships.
Scholars perceived the sevdalinka in exile as an evident expression of refugees’ Bosnian identity... more Scholars perceived the sevdalinka in exile as an evident expression of refugees’ Bosnian identity. Although this aspect might be important, we think that identity dimension of the sevdalinka was overemphasised. That is why we point at the appearance of the sevdalinka in Slovenia as a complex process of experiencing uncertainty and trauma of forced migration on the one hand, and youth creativity or a search for expressive freedom on the other. Hence, we aim to move focus from the refugees’ music life as collective experience to personal, highly individualised narratives. In addition, we argue that musical activities were in many aspects organised. In these activities ethnomusicologists participated, therefore the work of applied ethnomusicology, together with its practice of strategic essentialisation of music, should be discussed as integral part of refugees' music making process.
Gender and Music-Making in Exile: Female Bosnian Refugee Musicians in Slovenia This article explo... more Gender and Music-Making in Exile: Female Bosnian Refugee Musicians in Slovenia This article explores the role of Bosnian refugee women in the music-making and organisational activities of two refugee bands (Dertum and Vali) in Slovenia in the early 1990s. Endorsing the ideas about the transformative power of art and looking beyond the dominant identitarian doxa that views music-making in exile as simply the preservation of the ethnic/national identity in a new context, the article places particular emphasis on the active role of women as creative agents of social change. It traces their role ethnographically not only in the process of reinvention of a traditional musical genre (the sevdalinka), but also in identity negotiations and transformation of the gender and power relations within and beyond the boundaries of the heterogeneous Bosnian refugee community, which had been shaped by the strict Slovenian migration policy. IZVLEČEK Spol in glasbeno ustvarjanje v begunstvu: Bosansko-hercegovske glasbenice begunke v Sloveniji Članek obravnava vlogo bosansko-hercegovskih begunk v organizacijskih dejavnostih in glasbenem ustvarjanju dveh begunskih glasbenih skupin (Dertum in Vali) v Sloveniji z začetka devetdesetih let. Ob upoštevanju idej o transformativni moči umetnosti in sočasnem zavračanju identitarne dokse, ki begunsko ustvarjalnost največkrat reducira na begunske težnje po ohranjanju nacionalne/etnič-ne identitete v novih kontekstih, članek prikaže begunske ženske kot kreativne akterke družbenih sprememb. Etnografsko zasleduje njihovo vlogo pri transformaciji tradicionalnega glasbenega žan-ra – sevdalinke, prav tako pa pokaže na njihovo moč pri identitetnih pogajanjih ter spremembah razmerij moči ter razmerij med spoloma, in sicer tako znotraj heterogene bosansko-hercegovske begunske skupnosti kot tudi onkraj njenih – z migracijsko politiko – začrtanih meja. KLJUČNE BESEDE: begunke, glasbeno ustvarjanje, umetnost in sprememba, odnosi med spoloma, sev-dalinka, Bosna in Hercegovina, Slovenija
Sounds of Attraction: Yugoslav and Post-Yugoslav Popular Music (eds. Miha Kozorog & Rajko Muršič). Ljubljana: Ljubljana University Press, Faculty of Arts, 2017
The paper 'Doubly Excluded, Doubly Included, “Something In-Between”: A Bosnian Refugee Band and A... more The paper 'Doubly Excluded, Doubly Included, “Something In-Between”: A Bosnian Refugee Band and Alternative Youth Culture in Slovenia' is about a group of young Bosnian refugees who – after the breakup of Yugoslavia and the ensuing war in Bosnia-Herzegovina – migrated to Slovenia and formed a punk rock band called Nešto između (Something In-Between) at the Ilirska Bistrica refugee centre. The memoirs, as well as the artistic expression of the band, provide a portrait of how nonconformist and perhaps rebellious youth confronted the exile.
This article explores some of the musical practices of Bosnian refugees in post-Yugoslav Slovenia... more This article explores some of the musical practices of Bosnian refugees in post-Yugoslav Slovenia in the mid-1990s and aims to improve understandings of music in transit and in precarious times. In particular, the article traces the effects of common Yugoslav history on the popularisation of Sevdalinka in Slovenia and the efforts of refugee and local musicians to make a new home together after the breakup of Yugoslavia.
This article explores sevdalinka as regional musical genre that represents contradictory ideologi... more This article explores sevdalinka as regional musical genre that represents contradictory ideological positions. The focus is on the various celebrities’ discourses with obvious political connotations that have been productive in the making of sevdalinka in past and present Bosnian-Herzegovinian contexts.
This article explores three recent representations of the First World War—specifically of the Iso... more This article explores three recent representations of the First World War—specifically of the Isonzo Front—in Slovenian popular music. It considers the works of Rodoljubac, Bakalina, and Bratko Bibič. These musicians and music collectives share a connection to the historical region of the Isonzo Front. The article investigates how these musicians’ knowledge of place informed their compositions. Four ways of knowing a place are identified, distributed to varying degrees among the musicians: absorbing locally shared narratives about a place, engagement with landscapes and the environment, personal memories, and analyzing and reconsidering a place. The article contributes to the literature on the involvement of music in the production of place by examining the multitude of ways of knowing a place.
This article discusses the motivations that have prompted a selected group of dairy farmers to tr... more This article discusses the motivations that have prompted a selected group of dairy farmers to transition from conventional to organic farming. Two locations in (pre-)Alpine Slovenia, both exhibiting less-favoured conditions for agriculture, were ethnographically studied. This article juxtaposes two different processes of conversion to organic farming: one taking place in the village of Čadrg, where farmers had taken up organic farming collectively before Slovenia entered the EU in 2004, and other in Škofja Loka Mountains, where farmers had individually gone into conversion after accession to the EU. The comparison indicates diverse circumstances of conversion in the same national context and illustrates differences and similarities in personal motivations as well structural conditions for conversion. The authors agree that a complex entanglement of factors influence farmers’ adoption of organic farming. Nevertheless, the comparison suggests an essential difference between individual and collective conversion to the organic mode of agricultural production.
Triglav National Park is the largest protected area in Slovenia that is established for the conse... more Triglav National Park is the largest protected area in Slovenia that is established for the conservation of an area’s natural and cultural heritage. However, it is also destined for recreation that is subject to specic regulations in order to respect certain environmental guidelines. This ethnographic paper discusses strategies mountain bikers employ to negotiate the existing rules regarding the recreational use of the park’s lands; in addition, the authors propose solutions to diminish their demands with the aim of ensuring quiet space for the park’s wildlife.
The article explores perceptions and representations of a protected area as an “adventurescape,” ... more The article explores perceptions and representations of a protected area as an “adventurescape,” as expressed by various social groups, and analyses how such perceptions are instrumentalized, mostly by the tourism industry, to ease environmental restrictions at a sensitive time when legislation regarding the protection of “natural environments” in Slovenia (ZON 1999), and Triglav National Park (TNP) in particular (TNP Management Plan 2012), is being modified and jointly constructed. It complements more quantitatively oriented studies and offers qualitative insights into (possible ways of) managing protected areas and into the relationship between environmental conservation, ecology, and tourism.
The article investigates the conditions which contributed to the Slovenian town of Tolmin becomin... more The article investigates the conditions which contributed to the Slovenian town of Tolmin becoming a ‘festival town’. On the basis of a study of a palette of festivals, the distinction is made between festivals which originate outside the area, are designed to make a profit and therefore involve large numbers, and festivals with a background in locality (in reference to Arjun Appadurai, ‘locality’ is here primarily understood in connection to identification). The article argues that the two festival concepts both contribute to the production of locality, but in different ways.
The Ritual Year 8: Migrations (The Yearbook of the SIEF Working Group on The Ritual Year), Sofia, 2014
The article discusses the agency of the public arts event ‘Topolo Station’ in relation to the ‘re... more The article discusses the agency of the public arts event ‘Topolo Station’ in relation to the ‘remote area’ of Slavia Friulana in northeast Italy on the Italian-Slovenian border. Various aspects of the area are analysed by using Edwin Ardener’s theory of ‘remoteness’. The area’s history is also described, with a focus on mass emigration, ethnic conflict, and the Cold War. The event is discussed as an event that models lived reality to stimulate the production of a more cosmopolitan place.
Ethnographies of mobility: Book of proceedings, 2013
This paper discusses the activities of jazz festival organisers in the town of Cerkno, Slovenia. ... more This paper discusses the activities of jazz festival organisers in the town of Cerkno, Slovenia. The organisers act on the basis of local affiliation, but with a view to transcend existing local conditions. As regards the latter, I consider experiences concerning the emigration of coevals. The organisers aim to transform these conditions by attracting people, media and employing cosmopolitan aesthetics. As the aim of the festival is to create a more cosmopolitan environment, I label the organisers locals-cosmopolitans. However, as they are only partially successful, but periodically repetitive in their doing, the festival can also be defined as, in Hirokazu Miyazaki’s terms, their 'method of hope'.
The article proceeds from four different but equally important concepts of scene by the authors J... more The article proceeds from four different but equally important concepts of scene by the authors John Irwin, Barry Shank, Will Straw, and Keith Harris. On the basis of these authors’ formulations, some essential elements for conceptualizing scenes are developed – interaction, communication, identity, and local and supralocal spaces. The four authors’ definitions are elaborated comparatively, and certain problems in the operationalisation of the concept are discussed. The authors of this article propose their own definition of the concept of scene, which is based on communication around core or important “things”.
The author presents three of his own ethnographic studies, which have prominently focused on wild... more The author presents three of his own ethnographic studies, which have prominently focused on wild animals. Each of these studies dealt with a different modality of animal, namely the symbolic, the imagined, and the living animal. In the article, they are associated with different relations between animals and people: the symbolic animal with ascribed relation, the imagined animal with imagined relation, and the living animal with direct relation. These relations, or people in relations, are linked to different concepts of social class, which in the first two cases can be linked to the ideas of Weber, and in the third to Marx: the ascribed is linked to class as social status; the imagined to class as an expression of cultural capital; and the direct to class as the result of relations of production. On the occasion of the inauguration of the new anthropological journal Svetovi/Worlds, which has dedicated this issue to animals in human worlds, the author’s intent is playful, experimental anthropological modelling.
For many years, the author has been researching močeradovec, a spirit whose distillation procedur... more For many years, the author has been researching močeradovec, a spirit whose distillation procedure purportedly includes fire salamanders. Little is known about this beverage; in 1995 its image as an authentic Slovenian hallucinogen was designed for the wider public by author and journalist Blaž Ogorevc. In 2015, amateur ethnographer Pavel Medvešček published a book about a mysterious community of “followers of the ancient faith” in the Soča River drainage basin in western Slovenia, whose mysteries included močeradovec. The article analyses the said community's narrative concerning this beverage. The author treats it as a survey sample or point test of Medvešček’s narrative about the ancient faith in general and questions Medvešček’s credibility.
In 2015, the Slovene public was astonished by the disclosure by a former employee of the Institut... more In 2015, the Slovene public was astonished by the disclosure by a former employee of the Institute for the Protection of Cultural Heritage of Slovenia, Pavel Medvešček, that a number of decades ago, in the area of the Soča River and its tributaries in western Slovenia, he had discovered a secret community of people whom he referred to as Ancient Faith believers. By then, the community was already disintegrating and he came across only its last representatives, who shared their worldview with him and described a number of their practices. Without the researcher’s intervention, their knowledge and knowledge about them would have been lost forever. In his disclosure, the author published his conversations with them. The reader of this alleged field material gets a very clear message: Ancient Faith believers were a self-aware and organised community which, hidden from the surrounding Catholics, preserved its own ancient religion, culture, cosmology and ontology. This discovery evoked interest within Slovene ethnology, since earlier no one had known about this community. Four ethnologists reinterpreted Medvešček’s material using their own expert knowledge, thus legitimising it as an ethnographic source, with a credible central message about the community’s existence. This article problematises the description of the Ancient Faith community as a “culture” with sharp demarcation lines with regard to the neighbouring Catholic majority. Fascination over the Ancient Faith believers is derived from the very image of a complete hidden culture. If the presented ideas and practices are reinterpreted in the light of hybridity, a merging of diverse traditions and syncretism, i.e. outside the framework of a clearly demarcated “community”, the charm of the Ancient Faith believers is gone. Some ethnographic reports from the Soča Valley which were created in the time of Medvešček's fieldwork speak in favour of this kind of view of the non-Christian ideas and practices. In this context – and particularly in light of a critical assessment of ethnographic sources – Medvešček’s contribution gives the impression of being closer to fantasy than ethnography.
The article is based on discussions with four actors in the field of youth entrepreneurship who o... more The article is based on discussions with four actors in the field of youth entrepreneurship who operate in the tidy environment of central Slovenia. The four actors strive to improve the said environment, believing that their projects (also) foster such improvements. Discussions with them took place during the Covid-19 crisis and so touched upon the current crisis, the economic crisis following 2008 (at which time the actors started undertaking their activities), and times of crisis in general. The article established that the actors in question viewed the contemporary period in general as a time of transition, uncertainty, and rapid change, to which they must be able to respond with speed and flexibility. This is why they also approach the current crisis with optimism, i.e. as just another dimension of uncertainty in an already uncertain time, one which mainly presents new challenges. The article posits that their optimism stems precisely from their perception of time as uncertain and fast-changing; the article defines the said optimism as the “optimism of affordances”. Affordances are defined as attainable potentials of complex material-digital-systemic-social-cultural-etc. environments, onto which an actor latches in continuing their life or career path (provided these conform to her/his ethics). Because the fast-changing environment provides a constant stream of affordances, the uncertain and transitional period is viewed as a cause for optimism. As it is anchored in the said affordances, the actors’ optimism itself has staying power.
The paper explores three classes of time that give shape to youth entrepreneurship in modern-day ... more The paper explores three classes of time that give shape to youth entrepreneurship in modern-day Slovenia. The first is historical time, which created entrepreneurship of the young as social fact and practice. The second is the time of being young as life age shaped by intergenerational relations, institutions, public discourses, regulations and norms, however, an age that young people want to mark with their own acts. The third time (or complex of times) is activated by young entrepreneurs’ activities; it is the time as lived and reflected by themselves. The paper is an ethnographic contribution to the studies of time in the context of economy as doctrine and practice. The first chapter links the rise of youth entrepreneurship in Slovenia with neoliberalism. The idea that this kind of entrepreneurship is particular is new and has been distributed in local environment by specialized think tanks. It emerged as part of post-socialist transition, however, it became much more influential after the 2008 economic crisis, when public inquiry about the future of youth prompted the need for and accelerated the production of stories about successful young people, particularly entrepreneurs. The second chapter presents youth as an institutionally framed life age, which, however, also strives to break institutional restraints. In Slovenia, parents have a considerable influence over their children and often function as an inhibition in their entrepreneurial desires. On the other hand, the media, schools and influential individuals encourage the young for an entrepreneurial path. In this contradictory configuration, entrepreneurship is an ambiguous option because it represents both rebellious and socially esteemed act. In any case, however, it gives self-confidence to young people, since it provides platform for actualisation of skills in digital environment and for “out of the box” thinking, which young people consider as advantages of their generation. The third chapter analyses a complex of times activated by young entrepreneurs’ activities. Young entrepreneurs explain how the making of enterprise and reaching the entrepreneurial goals reflects time-wise. They speak about hard work and necessity of progress both in enterprise and personal growth. They focus on current tasks, which are the building blocks of hopefully successful life story. Germs of optimism are inherent to this time, therefore, this time simultaneously generates hope. The paper closes with findings that young entrepreneurs focus on short-term goals and their own life (“life-story”) whereas for mid-term political projects they do not seem to show interest. The closing inquiry thus targets the present moment of youth optimism and self-confidence as perhaps the right time for (self)acknowledgement of youth as also a political force that transcends mere entrepreneurial ambitions.
The predominant Slovenian modern-day personality-shaping paragon is exemplifed in the persona of ... more The predominant Slovenian modern-day personality-shaping paragon is exemplifed in the persona of an innovative and flexible entrepreneur. Successful start-ups and entrepreneurs’ life stories are featured in mass media and on several platforms intended to stimulate young people’s careers. At the same time, another role model gains public recognition, i.e. the social activist, presented as engaged in volunteerism for the good and sustainable future of society and the environment. Following current anthropological discussions on personhood, morality, and ethics, this article explores one person’s – Lenart’s – dilemma as to which of these two role models he should actualise. On the one hand, as an activist, Lenart is engaged in solving legal problems concerning specifc outdoor recreational activities in Slovenia; in his view, these beneft society as well as ensure the future prosperity of his home area, with which he identifes strongly. For this engagement, he has won outstanding public recognition. On the other hand, although his activism has been publicly recognized and rewarded, he feels that he is also perceived as a deviation from the entrepreneurial “normality”, and that he should pay more attention to his entrepreneurial career. Thus, in addition to activism, he also tries to succeed in a number of entrepreneurial activities. Trying to be an ethical person, he constantly weighs the two personalities and their related careers against his personal and his relevant others’ futures in relation to what fully realizing either personality could bring.
This article provides an ethnographic portrait that reflects Michael Lambek’s proposition about two dimensions of ethical life. On the one hand, a person judges her/his actions as an accountable/continuous person. At the same time, however, she/he also draws on mimetic/discontinuous models of personality. The ethnographic portrait presents the balancing between the continuous and discontinuous dimensions as a socially embedded and subjectively demanding process.
This paper examines the making of the Great War memorial landscapes in the Soča Valley in Sloveni... more This paper examines the making of the Great War memorial landscapes in the Soča Valley in Slovenia, and differences in related conservation activities by two unevenly positioned heritage agents: experts and enthusiasts. The first are public employees who own mandate for an “authorized heritage discourse”. The second are a handful of inhabitants of the valley, who operate as volunteers and/or entrepreneurs. The paper compares their discourses, values and practices, points at their incommensurability, but also proposes that they prove complemental to each other.
Editorial to the special issue of the Bulletin of the Slovene Ethnological Society (vol. 57, no. ... more Editorial to the special issue of the Bulletin of the Slovene Ethnological Society (vol. 57, no. 3-4, 2017). The volume contains discussions of the anthropological 'ontological turn' by the following authors: Borut Telban, Maja Petrović-Šteger, Bojan Baskar, Tomi Bartole, Rajko Muršič, Blaž Bajič and Marjetka Golež Kaučič.
This article is based on two 2013 articles on recreation in the protected area of Triglav Nationa... more This article is based on two 2013 articles on recreation in the protected area of Triglav National Park (TNP) that the author published together with Saša Poljak Istenič. They are revisited in order to reconsider the relationships between people and wildlife – which formed one of the bases for arguing in favor of restricted recreation in TNP in these two publications – from a new perspective and using different conceptions. The article begins by summarizing the two 2013 publications on various types of recreation in TNP (hiking, mountain biking, paragliding, and so on) and the steps by TNP’s management affecting their performance. It presents the relations between TNP’s management and representatives of recreational activities, as well as the relations between the representatives of the recreational activities themselves. Considering the demands to relax the rules on recreation in the park by those using the area for recreation, the authors developed an engaged argument against expanding recreation and in favor of paying greater attention to the area’s wildlife. However, the authors drew conclusions on the wildlife issue too quickly in the two articles, implying a dividing line rather than coexistence between people and wildlife. Despite the valid contribution made by the two previous articles, the topic of inter-species relationships demands another look. An extensive portion of this article therefore focuses on various theories of human-animal relationships, based on which the conclusion is formed that the concept of a multi-species society is required in order to formulate the protection regimes in the park. The author deems the ethnoecology of Georges Guille-Escuret an especially useful scholarly approach, as well as the following conceptual tools: equal observation of ecological and social factors; studying the histories of inter-species relationships; paying attention to biology, technology, and language as mediators between the “human” and the “natural”; and the concept of an ecological niche for describing various types of recreation, or the specific relationships that recreation produces in a concrete environment. The author also addresses the need for interdisciplinary research (i.e., cooperation between ethnology and the natural sciences) on recreation in relation to wildlife. This article includes a critical undertone directed against the present conditions for carrying out scholarly work in Slovenia, where precarization of research, insufficient funds, and limited duration of projects force authors to strategically limit their research issues. This leaves certain areas unresolved, as is clearly shown with the case of the two 2013 publications discussed.
The war in Bosnia and Herzegovina, between 1992 and 1995, caused mass migrations. Tens of thousan... more The war in Bosnia and Herzegovina, between 1992 and 1995, caused mass migrations. Tens of thousands of refugees from the war-torn country found their (temporary) home in Slovenia, including large number of teenagers. This article, based on in-depth interviews and archive research, aims to present creative engagements of young refugees in the refugee centre Trnovo in the town of Ilirska Bistrica. The article focuses on the career of the punk rock group Nešto između and its artistic counterpart Sprung. It intends to widen the ethnomusicological perspective on refugees’ music-making from the study of traditional forms, e.g. sevdalinka, to the search for musical heterogeneity and creativity within the refugee environment. The article highlights the material and social conditions under which refugees’ creativity was evolving and demonstrates how artistic engagements helped a group of teenagers to change the monotony of everyday life in the refugee centre and beyond.
This survey article presents selected Slovenian ethnological and anthropological literature about... more This survey article presents selected Slovenian ethnological and anthropological literature about organized public events and partly compares it with relevant foreign literature. In the introduction the author poses the question what a “public event” is, and defies his position to the research subject. He establishes that public events may serve ethnographers as a way to enter a research relationship, but researchers also face dilemmas concerning authenticity of performances. The issue of authenticity has deeply marked the discipline in the fild of tourist events. In the past, scientific ethnology dedicated itself to the genesis of selected public events from the fild of "customs", and also to rescue recording in the modernization processes. Nowadays, more attention is attracted by public events from the filds of popular culture and politics, and the high number of various newly created “festivals” requires ethnologists to look for theoretical explanations for the phenomenon. The article concludes with a proposal for possible directions for further research.
Ponovno iscrtavanje granica: transformacije identiteta i redefiniranje kulturnih regija u novim političkim okolnostima: 12. hrvatsko-slovenske etnološke paralele
This paper looks at identity discourses and politics that co-shape the contemporary Slovene ethni... more This paper looks at identity discourses and politics that co-shape the contemporary Slovene ethnicity in Slavia Friulana (or Slavia Veneta), a hilly eastern part of the autonomous region of Friuli-Venezia Giulia in the Republic of Italy. They include regionalism in Friuli-Venezia Giulia, Slovene and Italian nationalism, localism, and several forms of multiculturalism. Among the latter, the author distinguishes, after anthropologist Terence Turner, between “diffrence multiculturalism” and “critical multiculturalism,” and also adds “negative multiculturalism.” While some of the above-mentioned politics and discourses on identity are planned others are largely spontaneous. Th aim of this text is to show their multitude that shapes, through interactions, ethnic identifiation of Slovenes living in Slavia Friulana. Although each type of politics and discourse has its own specific history, the paper examines them within the period of European integration and redefinition of European borders in the 1990s and the fist decade of the 21st century.
Ars & Humanitas (Vol. 7, No. 2), pp. 136-149, 2013
The article discusses the mountainous area of Slavia Friulana in northeast Italy and its construc... more The article discusses the mountainous area of Slavia Friulana in northeast Italy and its construction through the experience of migrations. Emigration, immigration and other aspects of the area are analysed by using Edwin Ardener’s theory of “remoteness”. Ardener in his definition emphasised that remote places are defined not so much in terms of topographical as topological space, i.e. their phenomenological perception in relation to other places. Remoteness as the experience of a geographical and social position therefore emerges from interactions with the “outside world”, with those who talk about “remote places” from privileged centres where dominant discourses about “Other” people and places are created. Thus, the “outside world” is the locus of selfdetermination, but also offers numerous havens for “seekers of meaning” from remote areas, which therefore empty. Beyond such theoretical modelling the article offers also historical and ethnographic data on identification and ethnicity, which prompted emigration from the area. It also discusses the Stazione di Topolò arts event which invites artists to live among the locals, whereby the project’s creators wish to encourage the opening up of the place to outsiders. The event is discussed as an event designed to model lived reality to stimulate the production of a more cosmopolitan place, although it evidently breaks with remoteness only provisionally.
The article discusses some recent “projects” in Strumica, Macedonia. They are considered from the... more The article discusses some recent “projects” in Strumica, Macedonia. They are considered from the viewpoint of production of place in the context of neoliberal economy and culture defined by representations. The production of place emerges from the dialectics between monopoly rent, which is according to David Harvey the demand of economy, and identification, stimulated by mass media, tourism and other representational landscapes.
Antropološki vidiki načinov življenja v mestih (ed. Jaka Repič, Jože Hudales), 2012
The paper deals with urbocentrism in Slovenian ethnology, anthropology and social sciences as wel... more The paper deals with urbocentrism in Slovenian ethnology, anthropology and social sciences as well as in broader Slovenian society.
Subcultural popular music festivals can be seen as a form of tourism, however, they can provoke d... more Subcultural popular music festivals can be seen as a form of tourism, however, they can provoke discomfort in their host communities. The article discusses festivals in Tolmin, Slovenia, where they appeared without planning, seemingly out of the blue, and became part of tourist offer. Social and spatial factors important for the implementation and development of those festivals are discussed. Of key importance was the response of local inhabitants, who accepted the festivals as their own, since through them, they could achieve an image of centrality.
The article discusses the positive attitude of Tolminians toward the Metal Camp international fes... more The article discusses the positive attitude of Tolminians toward the Metal Camp international festival in Tolmin. This relationship can be analysed by taking into account the marginalisation of the area (also through emigration). The festival operationalises the tourism construction of the area, brings in a mass of visitors, and places the town at the centre of a certain imaginary geography. With it locals become proud locals. The concept of "geography of marginality" is proposed, which encompasses both the emic feeling of being located at the margin and the related production of geographic imaginaries which symbolically reconstructs and redefines existing geographic relations.
Young Entrepreneurs: Ethnographies of a Political, Economic, and Moral Subject is an edited volum... more Young Entrepreneurs: Ethnographies of a Political, Economic, and Moral Subject is an edited volume of anthropological studies of youth entrepreneurship. The youth’s interest in and ventures into entrepreneurship are assessed as a contemporary social phenomenon complete with political, economic, and moral implications. The collection takes a wide view of the Slovenian context, which is further expanded with select cases from elsewhere. Open access: https://omp.zrc-sazu.si/zalozba/catalog/book/2050
The monograph provides readers with a basic introduction to the anthropology of borders and prese... more The monograph provides readers with a basic introduction to the anthropology of borders and presents a contemporary case of a Slovenian border region. The first chapters outlines many of the key lines of inquiry that influenced anthropological research on borders, border studies localized at selected border regions, and contemporary issues shaping anthropological research within the interdisciplinary field of border studies. The second half of this book is dedicated to presenting diverse aspects of the case of the Slovenian-Hungarian border around Goričko. These ethnographic chapters aim to provide a grounded understanding of the way that borders and border regimes have changed over the last decades, how these changes have informed the border region in diverse ways, and how border actors both experience and respond to these changes – through a myriad of their own border practices.
Popular music in former Yugoslavia appear to have had a much deeper impact on the development of ... more Popular music in former Yugoslavia appear to have had a much deeper impact on the development of the socialist state and its successors than is usually thought to be the case. The collection by the authors from the region presents feelings, stories and memories on popular music in Yugoslavia and its successor states.
This book is about relations between festivals and places as they occur at the geographical margi... more This book is about relations between festivals and places as they occur at the geographical margins. The link between a festival and a place is accorded something of a special position in modern capitalism. Because the postmodern bases for the accumulation of capital call for “difference,” both the festival and the place are convenient for producing this capital. The festival is a locally “bound” activity that contributes to the difference of the place, while the place contributes difference to the festival. Through “difference,” thus, the festival and place generate a specific desire for participation, through which also the periphery can attain the semblance of centrality. Festivals have an additional role in this, since they are not only a part of a place but also a part of much broader, sometimes global, cultural spaces – and the place can also gain for itself a specific position in these spaces. Further, festivals “correct” the static aspect of places. Because in the modern world they have an important ideological role of a certain mobility and movement (“bustling”), which some places are “lacking,” a festival can be a mechanism that, at least temporarily, produces these desired attributes.
This agent-centred ethnography pays attention to festival organizers who are involved with festivals in places to which they lay claim or cultivate a special feeling towards them. The author sought them out in more or less peripheral parts of Slovenia, Italy and Macedonia. The book outlines how the organisers have made use of festivals in order to actively change the characteristics of the places and to produce changed related imaginary geographies. With regard to such production of places, the author raises the critical question of whether festivals project merely the illusion of a “better place” or whether they give rise to a truly more “equivalent” place. At least to a certain extent, some encouraging individual ethnographic examples speak to this issue by showing that festivals function also as a method of maintaining agents’ hopes in their political project through which real changes appear in the direction of greater equality for the periphery.
The book uses various concepts for analysing the relationship between festivals and places. David Harvey’s concept of “monopoly rent” is used for the analysis of the general relation between the modern accumulation of capital and the local difference which the festival produces. The concept of “geographies of marginality” is used for describing the intimate experiences of an unequal geographical position which is simultaneously the basis for working towards changing the imaginary geography of a place in the direction of allegedly greater equality. In order to describe certain organizers, the concept of “local cosmopolitanism” is used, which is to be understood as the engaged changing of “relative location,” as defined by Sarah F. Green, to stimulate “a progressive sense of place,” as Doreen Massey defines it. An important proposition of the book concerning the organizers of numerous festivals on the periphery is that the annual repetition of a festival is a “method of hope”, as Hirokazu Miyazaki defines ongoing knowledge management at the ends of the known world and the consciousness of at least a minimal ability to affect future processes. The festival is therefore a periodic activity that gives meaning to the previous and continuous performances by agents and, at the same time, it is an incentive for their future work. This book opens up a different temporality than is common in anthropological readings of places and local identities – namely, temporality that is linked to the future and that produces new places, geographies, identities and subjectivities.
In the ethnographically and critically conceived study the core topics derive from the author’s e... more In the ethnographically and critically conceived study the core topics derive from the author’s examination of discourse on local tourism around the year 2000 in Tolmin, a town in W Slovenia of approximately 3.500 inhabitants, with as many living in its immediate surroundings, which has only recently began to appear as a possible tourist destination. The core topics concern the following questions: what represents tourism in situ?; which historic events co-shape(d) the present discourse on local tourism in Tomin?; how do the local landscape and “tourism landscapes” influence the present discourse on local tourism?; how are geographies of “place branding” connecting the global and the local levels of contemporary “tourism processes”?; how does contemporary local identification function within the global-local nexus?; and, what kind of discourse guided/s the newly established local tourism organisation, which began its work in the Tolminska region in the year 2000?
In the book, tourism is in the first place examined as a discourse in the Foucauldian sense, pertaining to power relations and strategic practices for organising social relations, while its uses are contextualised within historical, institutional and folk contexts. Thus, the author provides insight into the history of local tourism and the institutionalisation of tourism in the area around the year 2000, and also discusses the existing local grass-roots practices designed on the basis of more or less explicit tourism agendas.
The study is based on the “anthropology of tourism” paradigm, as well as on the emerging “anthropology of space and place” paradigm. The author brings new research topics into the field of anthropology of tourism, especially those derived from the phenomenon of proliferating tourist destinations in the modern world, their marketing strategies, and the identification processes of local inhabitants in relation to place branding within the global arena.
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IZVLEČEK Spol in glasbeno ustvarjanje v begunstvu: Bosansko-hercegovske glasbenice begunke v Sloveniji Članek obravnava vlogo bosansko-hercegovskih begunk v organizacijskih dejavnostih in glasbenem ustvarjanju dveh begunskih glasbenih skupin (Dertum in Vali) v Sloveniji z začetka devetdesetih let. Ob upoštevanju idej o transformativni moči umetnosti in sočasnem zavračanju identitarne dokse, ki begunsko ustvarjalnost največkrat reducira na begunske težnje po ohranjanju nacionalne/etnič-ne identitete v novih kontekstih, članek prikaže begunske ženske kot kreativne akterke družbenih sprememb. Etnografsko zasleduje njihovo vlogo pri transformaciji tradicionalnega glasbenega žan-ra – sevdalinke, prav tako pa pokaže na njihovo moč pri identitetnih pogajanjih ter spremembah razmerij moči ter razmerij med spoloma, in sicer tako znotraj heterogene bosansko-hercegovske begunske skupnosti kot tudi onkraj njenih – z migracijsko politiko – začrtanih meja. KLJUČNE BESEDE: begunke, glasbeno ustvarjanje, umetnost in sprememba, odnosi med spoloma, sev-dalinka, Bosna in Hercegovina, Slovenija
IZVLEČEK Spol in glasbeno ustvarjanje v begunstvu: Bosansko-hercegovske glasbenice begunke v Sloveniji Članek obravnava vlogo bosansko-hercegovskih begunk v organizacijskih dejavnostih in glasbenem ustvarjanju dveh begunskih glasbenih skupin (Dertum in Vali) v Sloveniji z začetka devetdesetih let. Ob upoštevanju idej o transformativni moči umetnosti in sočasnem zavračanju identitarne dokse, ki begunsko ustvarjalnost največkrat reducira na begunske težnje po ohranjanju nacionalne/etnič-ne identitete v novih kontekstih, članek prikaže begunske ženske kot kreativne akterke družbenih sprememb. Etnografsko zasleduje njihovo vlogo pri transformaciji tradicionalnega glasbenega žan-ra – sevdalinke, prav tako pa pokaže na njihovo moč pri identitetnih pogajanjih ter spremembah razmerij moči ter razmerij med spoloma, in sicer tako znotraj heterogene bosansko-hercegovske begunske skupnosti kot tudi onkraj njenih – z migracijsko politiko – začrtanih meja. KLJUČNE BESEDE: begunke, glasbeno ustvarjanje, umetnost in sprememba, odnosi med spoloma, sev-dalinka, Bosna in Hercegovina, Slovenija
This article problematises the description of the Ancient Faith community as a “culture” with sharp demarcation lines with regard to the neighbouring Catholic majority. Fascination over the Ancient Faith believers is derived from the very image of a complete hidden culture. If the presented ideas and practices are reinterpreted in the light of hybridity, a merging of diverse traditions and syncretism, i.e. outside the framework of a clearly demarcated “community”, the charm of the Ancient Faith believers is gone. Some ethnographic reports from the Soča Valley which were created in the time of Medvešček's fieldwork speak in favour of this kind of view of the non-Christian ideas and practices. In this context – and particularly in light of a critical assessment of ethnographic sources – Medvešček’s contribution gives the impression of being closer to fantasy than ethnography.
The first chapter links the rise of youth entrepreneurship in Slovenia with neoliberalism. The idea that this kind of entrepreneurship is particular is new and has been distributed in local environment by specialized think tanks. It emerged as part of post-socialist transition, however, it became much more influential after the 2008 economic crisis, when public inquiry about the future of youth prompted the need for and accelerated the production of stories about successful young people, particularly entrepreneurs.
The second chapter presents youth as an institutionally framed life age, which, however, also strives to break institutional restraints. In Slovenia, parents have a considerable influence over their children and often function as an inhibition in their entrepreneurial desires. On the other hand, the media, schools and influential individuals encourage the young for an entrepreneurial path. In this contradictory configuration, entrepreneurship is an ambiguous option because it represents both rebellious and socially esteemed act. In any case, however, it gives self-confidence to young people, since it provides platform for actualisation of skills in digital environment and for “out of the box” thinking, which young people consider as advantages of their generation.
The third chapter analyses a complex of times activated by young entrepreneurs’ activities. Young entrepreneurs explain how the making of enterprise and reaching the entrepreneurial goals reflects time-wise. They speak about hard work and necessity of progress both in enterprise and personal growth. They focus on current tasks, which are the building blocks of hopefully successful life story. Germs of optimism are inherent to this time, therefore, this time simultaneously generates hope.
The paper closes with findings that young entrepreneurs focus on short-term goals and their own life (“life-story”) whereas for mid-term political projects they do not seem to show interest. The closing inquiry thus targets the present moment of youth optimism and self-confidence as perhaps the right time for (self)acknowledgement of youth as also a political force that transcends mere entrepreneurial ambitions.
This article provides an ethnographic portrait that reflects Michael Lambek’s proposition about two dimensions of ethical life. On the one hand, a person judges her/his actions as an accountable/continuous person. At the same time, however, she/he also draws on mimetic/discontinuous models of personality. The ethnographic portrait presents the balancing between the continuous and discontinuous dimensions as a socially embedded and subjectively demanding process.
The article begins by summarizing the two 2013 publications on various types of recreation in TNP (hiking, mountain biking, paragliding, and so on) and the steps by TNP’s management affecting their performance. It presents the relations between TNP’s management and representatives of recreational activities, as well as the relations between the representatives of the recreational activities themselves. Considering the demands to relax the rules on recreation in the park by those using the area for recreation, the authors developed an engaged argument against expanding recreation and in favor of paying greater attention to the area’s wildlife. However, the authors drew conclusions on the wildlife issue too quickly in the two articles, implying a dividing line rather than coexistence between people and wildlife. Despite the valid contribution made by the two previous articles, the topic of inter-species relationships demands another look. An extensive portion of this article therefore focuses on various theories of human-animal relationships, based on which the conclusion is formed that the concept of a multi-species society is required in order to formulate the protection regimes in the park. The author deems the ethnoecology of Georges Guille-Escuret an especially useful scholarly approach, as well as the following conceptual tools: equal observation of ecological and social factors; studying the histories of inter-species relationships; paying attention to biology, technology, and language as mediators between the “human” and the “natural”; and the concept of an ecological niche for describing various types of recreation, or the specific relationships that recreation produces in a concrete environment. The author also addresses the need for interdisciplinary research (i.e., cooperation between ethnology and the natural sciences) on recreation in relation to wildlife.
This article includes a critical undertone directed against the present conditions for carrying out scholarly work in Slovenia, where precarization of research, insufficient funds, and limited duration of projects force authors to strategically limit their research issues. This leaves certain areas unresolved, as is clearly shown with the case of the two 2013 publications discussed.
This agent-centred ethnography pays attention to festival organizers who are involved with festivals in places to which they lay claim or cultivate a special feeling towards them. The author sought them out in more or less peripheral parts of Slovenia, Italy and Macedonia. The book outlines how the organisers have made use of festivals in order to actively change the characteristics of the places and to produce changed related imaginary geographies. With regard to such production of places, the author raises the critical question of whether festivals project merely the illusion of a “better place” or whether they give rise to a truly more “equivalent” place. At least to a certain extent, some encouraging individual ethnographic examples speak to this issue by showing that festivals function also as a method of maintaining agents’ hopes in their political project through which real changes appear in the direction of greater equality for the periphery.
The book uses various concepts for analysing the relationship between festivals and places. David Harvey’s concept of “monopoly rent” is used for the analysis of the general relation between the modern accumulation of capital and the local difference which the festival produces. The concept of “geographies of marginality” is used for describing the intimate experiences of an unequal geographical position which is simultaneously the basis for working towards changing the imaginary geography of a place in the direction of allegedly greater equality. In order to describe certain organizers, the concept of “local cosmopolitanism” is used, which is to be understood as the engaged changing of “relative location,” as defined by Sarah F. Green, to stimulate “a progressive sense of place,” as Doreen Massey defines it. An important proposition of the book concerning the organizers of numerous festivals on the periphery is that the annual repetition of a festival is a “method of hope”, as Hirokazu Miyazaki defines ongoing knowledge management at the ends of the known world and the consciousness of at least a minimal ability to affect future processes. The festival is therefore a periodic activity that gives meaning to the previous and continuous performances by agents and, at the same time, it is an incentive for their future work. This book opens up a different temporality than is common in anthropological readings of places and local identities – namely, temporality that is linked to the future and that produces new places, geographies, identities and subjectivities.
In the book, tourism is in the first place examined as a discourse in the Foucauldian sense, pertaining to power relations and strategic practices for organising social relations, while its uses are contextualised within historical, institutional and folk contexts. Thus, the author provides insight into the history of local tourism and the institutionalisation of tourism in the area around the year 2000, and also discusses the existing local grass-roots practices designed on the basis of more or less explicit tourism agendas.
The study is based on the “anthropology of tourism” paradigm, as well as on the emerging “anthropology of space and place” paradigm. The author brings new research topics into the field of anthropology of tourism, especially those derived from the phenomenon of proliferating tourist destinations in the modern world, their marketing strategies, and the identification processes of local inhabitants in relation to place branding within the global arena.