Ljubica Milosavljević’s research while affiliated with University of Belgrade and other places

The central topic of the paper is the humoristic production during the COVID-19 pandemic. The chief focus is on the main representations of the eldest members of the society during this dramatic period, when they were declared to be the most endangered, but also the ones who endanger others by their vulnerability. The research was limited to the first year of the critical period, when the state of emergency was declared, from March 15th to May 6th 2020, with the aim to observe the phenomenon of old age in the local humoristic discourse from the synchronic perspective. In this manner, it was possible to map the different ways of making jokes on old age. The analytic material, on the basis of which the conclusions were drawn, included both the traditional and contemporary modes of humour in which the elder people are the main actors. It was thus possible to discern which characteristics and actions are ascribed to the elder in the traditional, verbal jokes, as well as in the contemporary multi-media humoristic contents. The material included the oral jokes on the elder (verbal jokes on “grandmas and grandpas” on the Internet) as well as Internet memes with the theme of the old age, that appeared and circulated in Serbia during the period under analysis. The paper aims to contribute to the understanding of the particular forms of making jokes in the key of the so-called fourth ageism, linked to the most endangered old members, both in terms of health and social factors, in the society characterized by the wide-ranging paternalism.

This anthropological analysis focuses on the Croatian feature film Night Boats (2012), directed by Igor Mirković. The subject of the movie is a partnership that develops between two residents of a nursing home in Zagreb, highlighting, among other things, numerous problems and difficulties that the elderly face while trying to pursue a new romantic relationship at the very end of their lives, in specific nursing home conditions. The couple’s escape from the nursing home serves as an act of resistance, leaving room for the analysis of visual depictions of the various deprivations encountered by the elderly. Depictions of physical, emotional and economic dependency which result in an inability to make independent decisions, are in accordance with the results attained during several years of field research conducted in nursing homes in the Republic of Serbia. This research, which explores new partnerships as strategies of action among nursing home residents, will be compared with the film’s visual interpretations. Interpreting the visual depiction of deprivation and infirmity, which society associates the elderly with, will also include a semiotic interpretation of the symbolic expression that is used in the movie.

The development of the Internet and digital technologies has influenced the ever- greater migrations of printed content to the digital sphere (blogs, online media, Internet portals, social networks), which has also brought with itself changes in readers’ habits and in the concept and format of texts as wells. Music press is no exception in that respect. In the context of South European states, these processes coincide with the period of political, social, cultural and economic transition, giving rise to the development of numerous regional and local specific forms of popular culture. The existence of the SFRY as a shared state enabled the creation of an authentic cultural space, which continued to develop even after its disintegration. This paper endeavors to shed light on one segment of that local authenticity through an analysis of music press. The aim the authors of this paper aspire to achieve is the presentation of the development path of the printed media in the first place inthe Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, then in Serbia, as well as the reconstructions of the modality of the transformation of this media in the transition period from an anthropological perspective. The wish is to identify the perception and significance of music as a local culturalphenomenon through the qualitative analysis of the archival material and the available Internet sources as well, then to trace the cultural changes that have been going on over time as a result of global and local social and cultural turmoil. We do not refer to press only as the medium which has an informative role, but rather as the medium that reflects the local community’s attitudes, simultaneously constructing narratives on popular culture that are incorporated in our everyday life.

Antropološko istraživanje – sprovedeno u periodu od 2020. do 2022. godine – dizajnirano je s ciljem da uputi u najvažnija pitanja koja se odnose na strukturalne preduslove za rad u starosti, ali i na motive trinaest sagovornika za preduzimanje poslovnih aktivnosti nakon penzionisanja. Na ovaj način bilo je moguće odgovoriti i na neka ključna pitanja koja se tiču kvaliteta života u starosti, i to na osnovu procena ljudi koji ga žive, što je u skladu sa antropološkom orijentacijom preduzetog kvalitativnog istraživanja. Rad u starosti bio je tako shvatan ili kao preimućstvo ili kao egzistencijalna nužnost, što je dalje imalo implikacija i na pojedine strategije delovanja pojedinaca. Među njima, kao najznačajnije, izdvajaju se one koje podrazumevaju nastavak rada u okviru ranijih obrazovnih i radnih usmerenja ili pak potpunu promenu delatnosti od one u kojoj su ostvarili pravo na penziju. Na osnovu dobijenih etnografskih podataka bilo je moguće konstatovati i specifičan vid preduzetništva poput srebrnog preduzetništva, pored rada u okviru neformalne ekonomije i/ili prema propisanim zakonskim rešenjima.

Based on the several decades-old tradition of presenting jazz through festivals firstly in Yugoslavia, and consequently in Serbia, the Jazz in the Garden manifestation was founded in Belgrade in 2021. The name of the new festival apostrophises the location of the event - ?Jevremovac? Botanical Garden. With the anthropological analysis of this manifestation, we will strive to demonstrate how the manifestation in development like this one influences the construction process of one part of Belgrade?s identity through its connections with the local jazz scene. We will also consider the influence of the creation of different perceptions and new meanings of the well-known city space like the Botanical Garden ?Jevremovac? in which the festival is held.

This anthropological analysis of the Serbian TV series Muddy Tires (Kaljave Gume), which aired in the spring of 2021 on the Radio Television of Serbia, aims to point out the principal meanings which can be subsumed under the three dominant problems faced by the protagonist Vesna when she finds herself in situations that demand a reexamination of previously accepted norms regarding older members of contemporary Serbian society. The analytical procedure, also applied to film, involved the construction and study of an ethnography which consists of production, content and reception, with primary emphasis on the first two elements. In this way, it was possible to distinguish several of the more important themes that underpin the basic plot structure, which, very briefly, follows the everyday life of a sixty-year-old former pianist who, following the death of her husband with whom she had an unhappy marriage, leaves for California to visit her son, daughter-in-law and grandchildren. Her relocation from the environment in which she has spent her entire life has thus created the conditions for her to embark on a new relationship with an elderly American whom she met online, but also for the process of conflict with and resistance to norms which have typically dictated to her, as a widow, certain emotions, and actions in accordance with them, while challenging others. This process in which her age is foregrounded in contrast to actions which are labelled "out of time" and therefore inappropriate, even unacceptable for those closest to her, also involves actions by opponents dressed up in the specific form of ageism such as the so-called well-meaning ageism, when an older person is forced to accept unwanted expressions of "concern" and "assistance". Finally, a subsidiary but haunting motif is the motif of suicide of older members of society (in the series committed by Vesna’s brother-in-law Jovan), which functions as a reflection of easier acceptance and understanding by one’s community, unlike the decision to continue life in a new, late-life relationship following the death of a spouse. Finally, it should be observed that the attitudes, actions and censure of the adult members of one’s family are dominant.

Based on the results of anthropological fieldwork conducted in 2015 and 2016, the paper aims to review the employees’ experience regarding the process of the acceleration of time in the office of one multinational company in Belgrade. The scientific focus is placed on working hours and certain temporal boundaries that characterize it. The most significant outcome is that the experience of a given phenomenon is the result of the fact that time spent during the work increasingly pushes the private time of interlocutors to the point of complete usurpation. The process of the acceleration of time was analyzed at three levels based on the statements of fifty-six respondents. The methods used in this study were structured interviews, observation of daily activities and practices in the company’s office, participant observation, survey on the demographic and socio-economic profiles of the interlocutors, and a field diary. The first level involved an analysis of business hours esteem; the second one was oriented towards studying the process and period of employees’ adjustment to foreign colleagues; while the third level of analysis aimed to instruct employees’ relationship to working hours before and after the experience of worink with foreign colleagues. This research design turned out to be the most appropriate if we keep in mind that the results of this study lean on the results of anthropological research from 2005, which aimed to review the experiences, strategies and expectations of 30 employed Belgraders of different work positions, work orientations and the length of careers in terms of working hours. Amonog these 30 respondents the blurring of the differences between business and private sphere of life has been detected due to the experience of working in a changed socio-economic and political context since 2000 and the beginning of the reform process within EU integration process, accompanied by the specific social acceleration. The continuation of these processes, with certain features that come as a result of another change in the country’s political climate in 2012, therefore, are the key pathways through which the phenomenon of the acceleration of time in the modern Serbian society was observed on the example of a specific work/business community. Consequently, the acceleration of the Serbian society during the second decade of the 21st century, on the example of employees in the office of one multinational company in Belgrade, showed that the experience of working hours and certain temporal boundaries that characterize it among employees is such that private time is almost completely usurped by work time. This can be read through working hours, which practically cease to have clearly defined temporal boundaries in life of most respondents. The performance of work tasks is placed in the service of merging the spheres of business and private life into one, within the wokring hours.

Multiple processes in modern Serbia occurred at the end of the twentieth and the beginning of the twenty first century. Almost all of them regard political, economic, and social changes. Influences caused by these changes can be seen in the social template across the spectrum of plans, encompassing various spheres of life of individuals from business to private, all the way to the point where this division, for many, is gradually disappearing. In that sense, this paper will follow the most anthropologically interesting example of research, the one that follows the influences of the undertaken reform processes and observed changes. This is the example that regards the experience and evaluation of time among employed inhabitants of Belgrade, the capital of Serbia. The aim of this paper was to refer to the results of anthropological fieldwork conducted in 2005, which focused on the experiences, strategies and expectations of employed Belgraders in terms of their working hours and certain temporal boundaries that characterize it. Due to the increasingly intensive business contacts with foreign partners and colleagues since 2000, the working hours of employees were analyzed in a narrower context, as they were on the long list of adjustments, mostly to Western influences. These contacts were not only more frequent after the period of the 1990s, which, among other things, is characterized by a sudden break in cooperation with foreigners, but were often dictated by the EU integration process, the increase of the private sector in which operated companies were oriented towards profit, and the acceleration of time. The last aspect was examined in 2005 through a sample comprising 30 interlocutors of various business backgrounds. The ethnographic material was categorized and analyzed with regard to the differentiation of respondents by age. Fifteen respondents were chosen to represent the older generation (born in the 1940s and 1950s) and as many the younger generation (born in the 1960s and 1980s). The blurring of the boundaries between the employees’ business and private life in Belgrade became more marked at the turn of the century, and it could be clearly stated through the example of working time. Differences between the period of socialism and the period of reforms since the 1990s relate also to a sense of insecurity and fear of losing one's job or having inadequate work, and the simultaneous development of the private sector, which is characterized by stricter rules for employees. More intensive was the influence of business on the private domain of life, but also the intrusion of the private into business life. This has become a necessity and a pledge of individual functioning on both levels, which show combined characteristics of acceleration through the increase of obligations.

The fieldwork conducted in Belgrade during the summer and autumn of 2017 was oriented towards jazz musicians, and their strategies of action, in gist, implied playing other popular music genres through compromise – function work. Such business tactics are a consequence of jazz musicians’ ever-insecure position, but strategic goals have changed over time with the nature of that insecurity. Going beyond the genre boundary first became a means of securing the profession itself after WWII due to (foreign-)political and ideological influences, whereas from the 1960s to date, it has been the economic guaranty of the survival of many jazz musicians. Playing folk music is one of the observed strategies analysed through a broader sociopolitical, socioeconomic and professional context.

The anthropological analysis of the film Stairless (2014) will encompass: shedding light on the most important data on the production of the film, a description of the diegesis with an analysis and fragmental reception of the film, as well as some of its effects. The specifics of this film, aside from the fact that it belongs to the category of TV movie, which has a rich tradition in Serbia, but a lesser attraction than commercial films, at least when it comes to scientific attention paid to it, is extrapolated from circumstances and the focus on an old person as the protagonist. From the way in which the illness of the retired professor of neuropsychiatry – Alzheimer's dementia – is presented, it was possible to display all the problems with which those who fall ill, as well as those who are affected by it, face. In the end, a lack of possibilities in a dead end street, puts the protagonist in a nursing home for the elderly, and makes the viewer face certain effects of the film – the fear of old age, but also dilemmas and norms which regulate the handling of this issue in contemporary Serbian society.