The Family and Work in the Post-socialist Transition of Serbia: 1991–2006

Abstract

For a long period of time, the family and the household have not been considered agents in the economic sphere. However, in contemporary theoretical and research practice we are witnessing a rehabilitation of this aspect of family activity. The importance of the broader social and economic impact of this activity of families and households is legitimated through the concepts of social capital and household strategies in the labor sphere. This paper presents the results of three successive representative empirical studies of households in Serbia between 1991 and 2006. The main goal of these studies was to observe the problems households and families are facing in the transition process. The specific profile of Serbia's transition path, determined by numerous societal disturbances, is emphasized. The relation between the work sphere and the family sphere is viewed through five forms of the working status and activities of household members. Research results show a remarkable proliferation of informal work activities, which enable the survival of households in the circumstances of high unemployment and low wages in the formal labor sector.

Notes

1. The surveys were conducted continuously between 1991 and 2004, and their results have been published in the following collective volumes: Silvano Bolčić (ed.): Društvene promene i svakodnevni život. Srbija početkom 90-ih, 1995 (I)^* (Social Changes and Everyday Life. Serbia in the Early 1990s); Silvano Bolčić and Andjelka Milić (eds): Srbija krajem milenijuma. Razaranje društva, promene i svakodnevni život, 2002 (II) (Serbia at the Turn of the Millennium. Destruction of Society, Change and Everyday Life); Andjelka Milić (ed.): Društvena transformacija i strategije društvenih grupa. Svakodnevica Srbije na početku trećeg milenijuma, 2004 (III) (Social Transformation and Strategies of Social Groups. The Everyday of Serbia at the Beginning of the Third Millennium). In addition, we shall use official statistics, where available, as well as the results of some other representative empirical studies undertaken in the same period (Lazić, 1994).