The Role of Sociology in Serbia’s Post-Socialist Transformation

The main objective of this chapter is to examine the role of sociology in Serbian society over the previous three decades and how it has changed alongside changing global and local social contexts, especially those related to post-socialist transformation. Sociology’s impact on the processes of post-socialist transformation is explored through its different aspects and roles: of sociology as a science that produces knowledge, as a profession building its own institutional infrastructure and organisational networks, and as expertise that offers applicable knowledge and influences the shaping of public policies. At the individual level, sociologists act as academics, engaged intellectuals, educators, experts, politicians, journalists, civic activists, and political analysts. As a social formation, sociology, therefore, produces structures but also meanings and interpretations of the social world, creating material as well as cultural (ideological) forms. In analyzing the role of sociology in Serbia, we will rely on the cultural political economy approach (CPE). The core of our analysis will be devoted to discourses on post-socialist transformation that circulated within the two most influential sociological journals in Serbia and some other key writings by Serbian sociologists, over the 1990–2020 period. In accordance with the CPE approach, we will address the issues of selection, retention, and possible reinforcement of certain discourses and rejection of other discourses.