The Discourse of Anti-Instrumentalism: Exploring a Conceptual Model Through the Case Study of the We Won't Let Belgrade D(r)own Initiative

Authors

  • Irena Fiket University of Belgrade
  • Marjan Ivkovic University of Belgrade
  • Gazela Pudar Draško University of Belgrade
  • Jelena Vasiljevic University of Belgrade

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.1285/i20356609v12i3p898

Keywords:

Anti-instrumentalist discourse, deliberative democracy, neoliberal instrumentalism, social engagement, We Won't let Belgrade D(r)own initiative

Abstract

The main focus of our paper is on a specific form of democratic discourse, used in different types of social engagement actions (petitions, speeches, intellectual engagement, ad hoc citizens' protests, social movements etc.), that attempts to politicize a certain issue by challenging the neoliberal principle of instrumentalism which argues that democratic procedures can legitimately be abandoned in the name of the greater efficiency of socio-economic development. Therefore, we start from identifying the discourse of "neoliberal instrumentalism" and its relative success in delegitimizing the welfare state and mechanisms of democratic decision making and we formulate a conceptual model of a democratic counter-narrative named "anti-instrumentalist discourse". Through empirical analyses of discourse used by We Won't Let Belgrade D(r)own initiative, that mobilized against the Serbian government's urban project Belgrade Wa-terfront we try to illustrate the applicability and the heuristic value of the proposed model. The data for the analyses were collected through 1) desk analysis of available secondary data on the Belgrade Waterfront project, 2) official statements and proclamations of the We Won't Let Belgrade D(r)own initiative, 3) semi-structured interviews with four core members of the initiative.

Author Biographies

Irena Fiket, University of Belgrade

Irena Fiket is researcher at Institute for philosophy and social theory, University of Belgrade. Her research topics include citizen participation, democratic innovation, deliberative democracy, social and political engagement, European public sphere, European Higher Education, gender and the Western Balkans. She is one of the founders and a member of the Standing Group on democratic innovation at the European Consortium for Political Research (ECPR).

Marjan Ivkovic, University of Belgrade

Marjan Ivković is researcher at Institute for philosophy and social theory, University of Belgrade. His research focuses on problems of contemporary social theory and philosophy. The primary area of his interest is critical theory as an interdisciplinary approach that synthesizes social- and political-philosophical reflection with empirical social research.

Gazela Pudar Draško, University of Belgrade

Gazela Pudar Draško is researcher at Institute for philosophy and social theory, University of Belgrade. Her fields of interest are political sociology, particularly social engagement. She writes on the intellectual engagement, youth engagement and ideologies, particularly nationalism.

Jelena Vasiljevic, University of Belgrade

Jelena Vasiljević is researcher at the Institute for Philosophy and Social Theory, University of Belgrade. Her background is in political anthropology and citizenship studies. She has written on transformations of citizenship in the post-Yugoslav states, culture and rights debates in Southeast European context, memory politics, narratives and identity politics during the Yugoslav wars of 1990s. Her current research interests lie in politics of solidarity, activist citizenship and protest movements in the Balkans.

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Published

15-11-2019

How to Cite

Fiket, I., Ivkovic, M., Draško, G. P., & Vasiljevic, J. (2019). The Discourse of Anti-Instrumentalism: Exploring a Conceptual Model Through the Case Study of the We Won’t Let Belgrade D(r)own Initiative. PARTECIPAZIONE E CONFLITTO, 12(3), 898–918. https://doi.org/10.1285/i20356609v12i3p898

Issue

Vol. 12, No. 3 (2019). Special Issue on: Working as a platform: Labour needs, activation and representativeness in the era of digital transformation

Section

Open Section

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