BSAS: Deana Jovanović

This seminar explores the temporal, political and economic effects of theatrically performed promises of aspirational futures, staged in a Serbian industrial town. Based on a decade-long ethnographic fieldwork among the residents who navigated the remnants of Yugoslav prosperity and the struggles of post-socialist decline, the talk will delve into the encounters with theatrically performed promises of aspirational futures that were promising economic recovery, urban renewal, environmental restoration, and post-industrial prosperity. What temporal, material, and political effects did the staging made? How did the staging shape the residents' present and the scales and visions of the future? A key argument presented is that the staged promises of enhanced futures paradoxically withdraw from the horizon the long-term distant futures, which invites us to critically think about the performative aspects of contemporary populist politics. Join us for a discussion on how anthropology can illuminate the performative ways through which contemporary capitalist futures are remade.

Bio

Dr Deana Jovanović is Assistant Professor of Cultural Anthropology at Utrecht University. Deana studies how people make futures, interact with pipes and cables, and live with airborne particles in industrial environments. Her monograph Staging the Promises: Everyday future-making in a Serbian industrial town was published in 2024 by Cornell University Press.