Voluntary associations, state and gender in interwar Yugoslavia. An introduction

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Acknowledgements

This special issue is, for the most part, the result of two workshops organised by Fabio Giomi and Elissa Helms in Budapest in 2014 and Paris in 2015, supported by the Institute for Advanced Study (IAS-CEU), Centre d'Études Turques, Ottomanes, Balkaniques et Centrasiatiques (CETOBAC), LabEx TEPSIS and POLTUR research programmes. We thank in particular Elissa Helms (Central European University) and Nathalie Clayer (CNRS, EHESS) who provided insight and expertise that greatly assisted the research. We are indebted with all the participants for their comments, as well as with the two anonymous referees and the entire ERH editorial staff, for their help in improving our texts. We would like as well to thank our proof-reader, Andromeda Tait, for her professionalism and kindness all along this project.

Notes

1. On the pervasiveness of nation-state centrism in historical scholarship on south-eastern Europe, see in particular Brunnbauer, (Re)Writing History; Todorova, Balkan Identities. To situate this tendency in broader contexts and from a longue durée perspective: Iggers, Wang, and Mukherjee, A Global History of Modern Historiography, 69–116.

2. On this topic, see, among others, Jacobsson, Urban Movements and Grassroots Activism; Fischer and Pleines, Civil Society in Central and Eastern Europe; Bojicic-Dzelilovic, Ker-Lindsay, and Kostovicova, Civil Society and Transitions; Todorova, “Was there Civil Society and a Public Sphere under Socialism?" 163–173. A few works adopt an interdisciplinary approach, including a historical longue durée perspective: Hackmann and Roth, Zivilgesellschaft im östlichen und südostlichen Europa; Sterbling, Zivilgesellschaftliche entwicklungen.

3. Agulhon, “L’histoire sociale et les associations.” On voluntary associations, Morton, de Vries, and Morris, Civil Society, Associations and Urban Places, 1–16. For further definitions, see Clark, British Clubs and Societies, 16; Bradley, Voluntary Associations in Tsarist Russia, 5–6.

4. On the late Habsburg Empire, see in particular Nemes, “Associations and Civil Society in Reform-Era Hungary;” Rumpler and Urbanitsch, Die Habsburgermonarchie; Cohen, “Nationalist Politics and the Dynamics of State and Civil Society;” Heppner, “Die Habsburgermonarchie und die Idee der Zivilgesellschaft;” Zimmermann, Divide, Provide and Rule; Luft, “Zivilgesellschaft im cisleithanischen Teil der Habsburgermonarchie.” On voluntary associations, and by extension on the (im)possibility of civil society in the late Ottoman Empire, see in particular Georgeon, “Civil Society;” Özbek, “Defining the Public Sphere during the Late Ottoman Empire,” Anastasopoulos, “The Ottomans and Civil Society: A Discussion of the Concept and the Relevant Literature;” on the Kingdom of Serbia: Mišković, “... ‘mit dem Patriotismus der serbischen Dame hat die Welt noch zu rechnen!’;” Stefanović, Nation und Geschlecht.

5. See for example Banac, The National Question in Yugoslavia; Djokić, Elusive Compromise. Wachtel, Making a Nation, Breaking a Nation; Djokić, Yugoslavism.

6. For example, Petranović, Istorija Jugoslavije; Ramet, The Three Yugoslavias; Pirjevec, Il giorno di San Vito.

7. Sundhaussen, Geschichte Jugoslawiens; Lampe, Yugoslavia as History; Calic, Geschichte Jugoslawiens.

8. Kecman, Žene Jugoslavije; Sklevicky, Konji, žene, ratovi.

9. Vučetić Mladenović, Evropa na Kalemegdanu.

10. Kemura, Uloga ‘Gajreta’; Kemura, Značaj i uloga ‘Narodne Uzdanice’; Dautović, Uloga El-Hidaje.

11. Žutić, Sokoli: ideologija u fizičkoj kulturi.

12. Janjetović, Deca careva, pastorčad kraljeva; Malkovski, “Albanskata organizacij Besa (1935–1941);” Apostolov, “Strui, vlijanija, organizaciji i partii vo Makedonija vo periodot na sozdavanjeto na kralstvoto SHS;” Pirraku, “Kulturno-prosvetni pokret Albanaca u Jugoslaviji (1919–1941).” See also the bibliographical references in the articles of this special issue.

13. With some notable exceptions: see for example, Newman, Yugoslavia in the Shadow of War; Bennett, “The Temperance Movement in Yugoslavia: the Role of the Medical Profession, 1900–1940.” Useful considerations on specific associations can be also found in works devoted to other main topics, like for example Troch, Nationalism and Yugoslavia, 184–223; Jakir, Dalmatien zwischen den Weltkriegen, 362–80.

14. Morris, “Clubs, Societies and Associations;” Duprat, Usage et pratiques de la philanthropie; Agulhon, “L’histoire sociale et les associations;” Clark, British Clubs and Societies.

15. See footnote 4.

16. See in particular Lindenmeyr, Poverty Is Not a Vice and Bradley, Voluntary Associations in Tsarist Russia.

17. Hildermeier, Kocka, and Conrad, Europäische Zivilgesellschaft in Ost und West; Hoffmann, Civil Society, 1750–1914; Morton, de Vries, and Morris, Civil Society, Associations and Urban Places; Avdela, “Introduction,” 11–38.

18. Todorova, “The Trap of Backwardness;” Anastassiadis and Clayer, Society, Politics and State-Formation; Rutar, Beyond the Balkans.

19. For an overview of the research in this field: Morton, de Vries, and Morris, Civil Society, Associations and Urban Places. See also Kocka, “Zivilgesellschaft als historisches Problem und Versprechen;” Bauerkämper, Die Praxis der Zivilgesellschaft.

20. Following the well-argued catalogue of research questions by Hackmann in Zivilgesellschaf im östlichen und südostlichen Europa, 9–27, as well as Höpken, “Stadt und Zivilgesellschaft in Südosteuropa: Anmerkungen aus historischer Perspektive,” 111–56.

21. Zahra, Kidnapped Souls: National Indifference and the Battle for Children in the Bohemian Lands, 1900–1948, 104; Katz and Sachsse, The Mixed Economy of Social Welfare: Public/Private Relations in England, Germany, and the United States, the 1870's to the 1930's.

22. Hering and Waaldijk, Guardians of the Poor.

23. Berger, Organizing Interests in Western Europe; Maier, Changing Boundaries of the Political; Costa Pinto, The Nature of Fascism Revisited, 121–49; Costa Pinto, Corporatism and Fascism: The Corporatist Wave in Europe; Pasetti, Progetti corporativi tra le due guerre mondiali.

24. Zver, “Korporativizem v slovenski politični misli v 20. in 30. letih;” Cipek, “Liberalizam – korporativizam;” Petrungaro, “Inter-war Yugoslavia Seen Through Corporatist Glasses;” for some Southeastern European comparative remarks: Basciani, L´illusione della contemporaneità , 114–18, 165–70 and passim.

25. On social engineering from a comparative perspective: Etzemüller, Die Ordnung der Moderne; Brückweh, Engineering Society.

26. Sklevicky “Karakteristike organiziranog djelovanja žena u Jugoslaviji;” Obradović, “Udruženje univerzitetski obrazovanih žena u Jugoslaviji;” Savić, “Kolo Srpskih Sestara;” Giomi, “Forging Habsburg Muslim Girls;” Vujnović, Forging the Bubikopf Nation; Ograjšek Gorenjak, Opasne Iluzije; Stefanović, Nation und Geschlecht, Stolić, Sestre Srpkinje.

27. Daskalova et al., “The Birth of a Field.”

28. See for instance Kaser, Patriarchy after Patriarchy, 109–14 on gender relations and family in Southeastern Europe, which considers the interwar years to have been a kind of interval in the transformation from the Ottoman to the socialist family.

29. See n. 26.

30. For an overview of this debate, see among others Bader-Zaar, “Controversy: War-Related Changes in Gender Relations.” On the same topic, see in particular Wingfield and Bucur, Gender & War in Twentieth-Century Eastern Europe.

31. Herman Kaurić, “Koliko je društava djelovao u Zagrebu za vrijeme Prvog Svjetskog rata;” Benyovsky, “Dobrotvorna društva u Hrvatskoj od osnivanja do Prvog svjetskog rata;” Kolar-Dimitrijević, “Zbrinjavanje gladne djece u hrvatskoj na pragu Prvog svjetskog rata;” and Boban, “Sabor Kraljevine Hrvatske, Slavonije i Dalmacije o problemima prehrane tijekom I svjetskog rata;” Bahovec, “Love for the Nation in Times of War.”

32. Krippner, Žene u ratu: Srbija 1915–1918. For an overview of the role of women in the First World War in Southeastern Europe, see Mladenović, “Women's Mobilization for War (South East Europe).” For the impact of the Fist World War on families in Serbia, see Mladenović, Porodica u Srbiji u prvom svetskom ratu.

33. See for example the recent Dimitrijević and Baker, “British-Yugoslav Lesbian Networks During and After the Great War,” 49–63.

34. Erlich, Family in Transition.

35. Etzemüller, Alva and Gunnar Myrdal.

36. Turda, Modernism and Eugenics; Turda, The History of East-Central European Eugenics.

37. Hoffmann, Civil Society.

38. Kecman, Žene Jugoslavije.

39. Dautović, Uloga El-Hidaje and Prlenda, “Young, Religious, and Radical: The Croat Catholic Youth Organizations, 1922–1945.”