Belgrade vs. Serbia: Spatial re-configurations of belonging

This article explores the relationship between the nation, the city, narratives, and belonging in Serbia through an analysis of narratives of a set of 30 interviews with young Belgrade intellectuals aged 23-35. I argue that what appears to be emerging in post-Milosevic Serbia is a new articulation and a new scale of belonging. Most of my informants are mobilising their city identities, moving from a national to an urban perspective. They imaginatively defend their city identity through a discourse that, others' its newcomers, i.e. the rural residents. However, the article is critical of their articulated dichotomous rhetoric of 'Us, the City Cosmopolitans' vs. I Them, the Rural Nationalists' My overall aim is to offer an analysis of the Serbian case, where one sees that the city of Belgrade has become a microcosm and a symbolic expression for modernity, resistance, openness and democracy. However, instead of seeing urbanity as the only locus of modernity, one needs to understand that urbanity does not one-dimensionally lead to the urbanisation of the mind, implying that once you have cities, or live in a city, there is a specific urban, cosmopolitan experience.

Cortisol, DHEA, performance and training in elite swimmers

Salivary cortisol (C) and DHEA concentrations were measured in 9 elite swimmers (4 female and 5 male) over a 37-week period, 5 to 12 times per swimmer, before 68 competitions. For female and male swimmers, no significant relationship was found between C, DHEA and performance. For the whole group, C was negatively correlated with week number of training (r = -0.31, p < 0.01). The incorporation of the cumulated distance swum as a second variable in the regression increased r to 0.56 (p < 0.01). The higher the cumulated distance swum, the higher C. No significant relationship was found between DHEA and distance swum. For individual swimmers, 3 of 4 females showed a significant negative relationship between C and cumulated dry-land training. No equivalent relationship was found for DHEA. The 2 males practicing dry-land training showed a significant and negative relationship between DHEA and cumulated dry-land training. No equivalent relationship was found for C. Thus, C and DHEA were not good predictors of swimming performance. C for individual females, and DHEA for individual males were considered useful markers for dry-land training stress.

Mapping civil society in former Yugoslavia

From the break up of the New Left into single issue groups at the end of the 1960s came a variety of groups representing the peace movement, environmental movement, student movement, women’s movement, and gay liberation movement. This explosion of new social movement activism has been heralded as the age of new radical politics. Many theorists and activists understand new social movements, as replacing the working class as an agent for progressive social change. Scholars and activists now alike debate the possibilities for revolutionary change in this era of multinational capitalism and new nationalisms. This paper examines some of the above claims in the context of the contemporary Serbian civil society. It explores the relationship between the civil society, activism, and narratives in Serbia. In particular, it examines the anti-Milosevic’ movement Otpor! (Resistance), and its discourse, practice and politics in public spaces, through an analysis of narratives of a set of roughly 20 interviews with Otpor! activists, aged 18-35. In the following discussion, then, I will focus on some of the particular dilemmas of contemporary Serbian popular movements - they are dilemmas to do with the growing complexity of media life in the Serbian spaces. I ground my debate on particular uses of the notion of civil society in the narratives of Otpor! activists, while I focus on the question of how do Otpor! activists relate to Leftist/radical politics and the idea of civil society.