The Crisis of Working Class Sociability in Croatia
The Crisis of Working Class Sociability in Croatia

Challenges of De-Unionization

Summary/Abstract: This article investigates how the working class in contemporary Croatia responded to challenges brought by the post-socialist transition, with special focus on the patterns of sociability. In this ethnographically and historically informed paper, I explore three topics: the shrinking of cross-class sociability which is explained by the emergence of new, non-egalitarian orders of values; the privatization of sociability, often caused by the decline of trade union activities; and finally, the strategies of adapting to the new conditions by persisting on union activism and self-organizing of neighbourhood communities. The paper presents results from 17 in-depth interviews conducted in five research sites: two textile factories and one electric factory, one oil company, and one research institute.

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