28 Jan 2025
CCRS is proud to announce the publication of the open-access book of our colleague Dr. Jovana Diković The Laissez-Faire Peasant: Post-socialist rural development in Serbia (UCL Press).
The Laissez-Faire Peasant explores how rural development emerges on the ground. The concept involves the manifestation of peasant worldviews in which autonomy in decision-making, freedom of action, spontaneity, and flexibility in everyday cooperation play a dominant role. A role in which individual and local values generate a self-regulating system that manages a range of economic, social, and political relationships. The book examines manifestations of peasant autonomy, both in response to and independent of state rural development policies through a multi-sited ethnography of three Serbian villages. It is shown how these factors impede state programs for rural development while enabling the spontaneous flourishing of local communities. By focusing on the agency of rural residents, the book finds that peasants are resilient and competent agents who do not need government plans to thrive.
Open-access:
https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10201667/
Printed copies:
In the flyer there is a code which gives 20% discount for the purchase of the hardcover and the paperback edition.
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