Serbia
"Generation W"
"Serbia's Generation W" "The 1990s radically changed the lives of people in the former Yugoslavia. The national conflicts and wars that emerged trimmed the borders of the former Yugoslav state and with them the education system and political institutions, together with the social life and habits of the population. The chaos of war spread uncontrollably, producing massive material, emotional, cultural and institutional destruction in all the countries of the former Yugoslav region. In this disturbing entropic environment there emerged a new generation of young people, with a social experience that was significantly different from that which marked the Generation X at the same age. They grew up amid wars, destruction and a lack of attention from parents immersed in the problems of survival. At school they had reduced classes and extended holidays because of the strikes, bombing and lack of heating, a chaotic rearing in an unstable and often hostile environment. Unlike the members of Generation X, they were not offered a solid education by society because they were in a school system on the brink of collapse; the majority spoke no foreign languages or spoke them poorly. They have not travelled because they had no money or the opportunity to get a visa. Their only social experience is of their own country. Unfavorable historical moment of their born mark them as war generation—Generation W." ~ Isidora Jaric, Excerpt from Generation X Goes Global "Turning Point in Serbia" "The beginning of war in the territory of former Yugoslavia represents a symbolic turning point in the lives of the members of Generation X in Serbia/former Yugoslavia. The wars and destruction that engulfed the former Yugoslavia in the early 1990s was a symbol of the end of the safe world in which Generation X grew up and saw its future. The pain and suffering, even if not experienced, which entered the lives of the luckier members of Generation X only through the media, were enough to urge them to an uncoordinated and unenlightened collective act of escape, actual for some (emigration) and psychological for others (creating their own parallel, imaginary reality) from the brutality of the moment they were unable to face and take part in. Paradoxically, members of this generation were unable to politically articulate their own social interest in the brutal time of destruction." ~ Isidora Jaric, Excerpt from Generation X Goes Global |
Isidora Jaric. Sociologist. Works at the University of Belgrade, Faculty of Philosophy, Department of Sociology. The areas of her scientific interest are gender studies, youth (sub)cultures and sociology of education. In recent time her thoughts are occupied with the metamorphosis of the higher education system and current problems related to the implementation of the "Bologna" reform. Her latest book is titled The Bologna Reform of Higher Education in Serbia (Filip Visnjic: Belgrade, 2010). |