Society and Social Change in Serbia

Pre-requisites: Completed courses – Intro to Sociology, Theories of Social Change. Students will need to be able to read some class material in another language.

Course objectives: The goal of this course is for students to gain an understanding of the characteristics and details of social events and ideas in Serbia during the 2nd half of the 20th century and the beginning of the millennium. The method will be inter-disciplinary and will holistically, historically and comparatively address the subject.

Course description: Students will become familiar with characteristics of the social system in Serbia (and Yugoslavia) during the socialist period (as well as main features of socialism in eastern Europe). We will analyze the major social groups, character of social relationships, inequalities, etc. Students will be presented with the causes for the crisis and fall of the socialist system. The results of studies on the transformation of Serbian society during the 1990's will be presented, along with the newest social changes in Serbia.

Learning Outcomes: Students will be able to understand contemporary social change on a structural level and will be able to independently analyze those processes locally and globally.

Literature/Reading:

• M. Lazić, U susret zatvorenom društvu, Naprijed, 1987
• M. Lazić, ur. Račji hod, Filip Višnjić, 2000
• M. Lazić, Sistem i slom, Filip Višnjić, 1994
• M. Lazić, Promene i otpori, Filip Višnjić, 2005
• H. Linc, A. Stepan, Demokratska tranzicija i konsolidacija, Filip Višnjić, 1998
• M. Popović, ur. Srbija krajem osamdesetih, ISI FF, 1991
• L. Sekelj, Jugoslavija – struktura raspadanja, Rad, 1990