Research interests
contemporary family life, qualitative studies of the life course, social biographies, parenthood, intergenerational relations
Biography
Smiljka Tomanović completed her undergraduate and graduate studies in sociology at the Faculty of Philosophy, Belgrade by defending her doctoral dissertation in 1996. She has worked at the Department of Sociology since 1993, from 2011 as Full Professor, and was Head of Department between 2010 and 2012. She was the Director of the Institute for Sociological Research from 2002 to 2006, and has participated in all the Institute’s projects since 1991. Her areas of teaching and research, both academic and applied, are Sociology of Family Life, Sociology of Youth, Sociology of Childhood and qualitative methods. She has participated in a large number of national and international research projects in Serbia and the region. She has taken part as researcher or consultant in numerous academic and applied/policy projects, as well as in writing up strategic documents, in cooperation with a host of governmental and non-governmental organizations, and with the civil society sector. She was member of the Pool of European Youth Researchers partnership between the European Commission and the Council of Europe in the area of youth policies, the COST Actions: CA17114 YOUNG-IN and CA21143 TraFaDy. She is a member of the European Sociological Association RN13 Families and Intimate Lives and RN30 Youth and Generation. She has been a visiting scholar at Oxford University, Durham University, University of London, Central European University, Ljubljana University, University College London, Manchester Metropolitan University, University Milano-Bicocca, holding public lectures and seminars. She was the president of Sociological Scientific Society of Serbia from 2019 – 2023.
Selected publications
Tomanović, S. & Stanojević, D. (2024). Sociologija porodičnog života. (Sociology of Family Life). Belgrade: University, Faculty of Philosophy, Institute for Sociological Research.
Tomanović, S. (2022). Bringing social biography to the life course: Agency and reflexivity in education-to-work transitions in young adults’ biographies, Stanovništvo 60(2): 1–20. https://doi.org/10.2298/STNV2202009T
Emirhafizović, M., Heiman, T., Medgyesi, M., Pinhero Mota, C., Tomanović, S. & Vella, S. (eds.) (2022) Family Formation Among Youth in Europe: Coping with Socioeconomic Disadvantages. Information Age Publishing Inc. (IAP).
Krstić, N., Tomanović, S. & Stanojević, D. (2022). Family Practices and Time During the Covid-19 Pandemic in Serbia. Sociologija 64(2): 149–170. https://doiserbia.nb.rs/Article.aspx?id=0038-03182202149K
Tomanović, S. (2021). Na svom putu. Longitudinalno kvalitativno istraživanje socijalnih biografija mladih. (On Their own Path. Longitudinal qualitative research of the social biographies of young people) Belgrade: University, Faculty of Philosophy, Institute for Sociological Research.
Tomanović, S. (2021). Experience of Unplanned Maternity: Case Studies of Two Young Single Mothers in Belgrade. Sociologija 62(2): 153–170. https://doiserbia.nb.rs/Article.aspx?id=0038-03182002153T
Tomanović, S. (2019). Reconstructing changes in agency in the young people’s social biographies through longitudinal qualitative research. Young 27(4): 1–18. https://doi.org/10.1177/1103308818793304
Selected presentations
(2024) “Gendered Intimacy: Young Adults Talk about Emotional Relationships”, 16th Conference of the European Sociological Association, 27–30 August 2024, Porto, Portugal.
(2018) keynote lecture “Contextualising agency within structures of ‘chronic social crisis’ in Serbia”, ESA RN 30 ‘Youth and Generation’ Midterm Conference 2018 (Being) Young in context. Concepts, contexts and comparisons in youth studies, 13–16 September 2018, Srebrno jezero.
(2017) “Experience and displaying of early parenthood in narratives of young mothers and fathers”, 13th Conference of the European Sociological Association (Un)Making Europe: Capitalism, Solidarities, Subjectivities, Athens, Greece, 29 August – 01 September 2017.
(2017) public lecture “Accepting the Other in a Post-conflict Society. Ethnic Distance among Young People in Serbia in Comparative Perspective”, University College London – Institute of Education, 11. 5. 2017.
(2017) public lecture “Political Engagement of Young People in Serbia: Between Alienation and Resistance”, Manchester Metropolitan University, 17. 5. 2017.
