Dimenzije ekonomije: prilog promišljanju privatizacije kao socio-kulturne transformacije
DIMENSIONS OF ECONOMY: A CONTRIBUTION TO THE REFLECTION OF PRIVATIZATION AS SOCIO-CULTURAL TRANSFORMATION

Author(s): Ildiko Erdei
Subject(s): Culture and social structure , Post-Communist Transformation
Published by: Srpski genealoški centar
Keywords: transition from communism to capitalism;privatisation;antropology;
Summary/Abstract: The process of privatization, in other words the transformation of the former state owned, into private property, represents an element of the "transitional package" that brings about expectations of procurement for the ex-socialist societies into a state of "new economic normality" that is, in today’s societies and economy, represented by liberal capitalism. In the examination and analysis of the privatization through the economic, governing and expert milieus, this process is frequently situated in the context of economic and political study. In doing that, the investigation of the social and cultural implications of the process that stems from privatization representing not only a modification of the ownership structure, but a complex process in which there is an encounter of the different business and organizational cultures of "east" and " west", and through which they are subject to a reexamination and revision of some of the basic cultural categories, such as time, the idea of a person, concept of production, labor, as well as the questions of responsibility, freedom, creativity, independence, is recurrently being disregarded. From such a perspective, that is pursued by many anthropologists who deal with post-socialist countries, it comes about that privatization will foster, not only, a novel mode of ownership and a new breed of business, but primarily, a new category of social individuals, that are expected to epitomize the new economic and social order, in which they are successfully integrated, so as to reproduce it. In other words, the "disciplining" of the manufacturers, is intrinsically linked to the transformation of the logic of economy that is based upon the"independent consumer" that twists privatization into an ambiance in which questions of responsibility, choice, freedom and coercion, are discussed and negotiated. In this paper such queries will be inspected through a privatization of a local brewery in 2003, by a known, but not a leading world beer and beverage producer.

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