National conference “The global crisis of the neoliberal form of the capitalist regulation and local consequences: the case of Serbia” was held on November 17th and 18th, 2017 at the Faculty of Philosophy, University of Belgrade.
The aim was to discuss the consequences of the global crisis of the neoliberal form of capitalist regulation from a sociological point of view. At the local level (i.e. country/region/town or village etc.) all kinds of changes may be identified, and the papers presented dealt with a variety of problems and challenges that arise in Serbia in the context of the global crisis.
There were seven conference sessions. Most participants based their presentations on empirical data, while some speakers chose to tackle the new type of social regulation theoretically and conceptually. The causes and local consequences of the global crisis of the neoliberal order were discussed, deliberating also various alternative strategies for social development in Serbia.
Political responses to the crisis of neoliberal capitalism were analyzed, with the neoconservative backlash singled out for special scrutiny, while on the other hand acknowledging new forms of civic activism characteristic of the digital age. Among the phenomena that were particularly noted, a divergence between the elite and the population at large was identified as an expression of structural and value-ideological changes accompanying the global rise and crisis of neoliberalism. Other topics included the neoliberalization of public administration and public policies, the impact of global neoliberal processes on rural and urban development, changes in people’s social status and cultural identity in the context of the global crisis, etc.
The conference was organized within the project “Challenges of new social integration in Serbia: concepts and actors”, funded by the Ministry of Education, Science and Technological Development of the Republic of Serbia.
All paper abstracts were published in the Book of Abstracts, while selected full papers were subsequently published in the proceedings, entitled Serbia in the Conditions of the Global Crisis of the Neoliberal Form of Capitalist Regulation (2018).