Between Labour and Capital: A Social History of 'Privatnici' and the Yugoslav Private Sector (1963-1988)

Objective

Socialist Yugoslavia’s experiment with workers’ self-management attracted global attention, yet a key aspect remains underexplored: the role of the private sector. The “privatnici” – self-employed workers and small business owners – occupied an ambiguous position between labour and capital, condemned as ‘speculators with their own labour’ yet also regarded as a potential solution to economic difficulties. Drawing on labour history and debates on regional and social inequalities in socialist Yugoslavia, PRIVAT-YU moves beyond the social-sector focus to introduce privatnici as a new research subject, offering the first comprehensive analysis of their lived experiences. Adopting an actor-centred approach, PRIVAT-YU investigates how privatnici negotiated with local authorities and adapted to shifting policies. Three case studies – farmers in central Serbia, tourist workers on the Croatian coast, and entrepreneurs in Kosovo – highlight regional diversity. The project pursues three objectives: 1) Archival research examines how federal perceptions of privatnici were reflected locally and how social differences (gender, class, rural/urban origin) shaped negotiations with local authorities. 2) Oral history traces entanglements between private and social sectors, asking how and why privatnici combined employment in both or moved between them. 3) Comparative analysis identifies variations across republics and links them to regional inequalities and to differing roles of the private sector. Conducted at the Leibniz Institute for East and Southeast European Studies (IOS) in Regensburg and supervised by Prof. Ulf Brunnbauer, PRIVAT-YU advances the historiography of socialism and adds historical depth to debates on economic restructuring and small entrepreneurship amid today’s polycrisis and its EU dimension. PRIVAT-YU also supports the researcher’s career development, including a mid-term goal of securing an ERC grant and a long-term ambition of founding an institute in Slovenia.