Papers by Anna Calori
Rethinking Socialist Space in the Twentieth Century, 2024
In the past decade, global history research has been increasingly committed to charting the role ... more In the past decade, global history research has been increasingly committed to charting the role that the socialist world played in coshaping the contours of the economic and political global order that had been born from the ashes of the Second World War. New historiography on global socialism has pluralised the established geographies of globalisation, outlining the contribution of the COMECON countries in designing 'alternative globalisations' in the developing and post-colonial world. 1 The growing historiographical field focusing on global socialism has analysed the multiple ways in which the socialist camp expanded its 1
Cold War History, 2023
The history of the Non-Aligned Movement is marked by a seemingly irreconcilable fracture: that be... more The history of the Non-Aligned Movement is marked by a seemingly irreconcilable fracture: that between Yugoslavia and Cuba. Both countries aspired to gain leadership in it, while advocating for very different visions of socialist internationalism. Underneath the surface of strained diplomatic relations, however, lay a seabed of prolific economic cooperation between Yugoslav and Cuban enterprises. Propelling this exchange was a question fundamental to the non-aligned economic strategy: how to achieve economic de-colonisation and self-reliance without compromising aspirations to global integration. Based on new research findings, this article analyses economic non-alignment as a balancing act between integration and self-sufficiency.
Contemporary European History, 2021
The 1975 World Conference on Women marked the beginning of the United Nations Decade for Women. T... more The 1975 World Conference on Women marked the beginning of the United Nations Decade for Women. The conference report, written soon afterwards, underlined that ‘the issue of inequality that affects the vast majority of women of the world is closely linked with the problem of under-development which exists as a result not only of unsuitable internal structures but also of a profoundly unjust world economic system’. This type of holistic and more radical understanding of (under)development has usually been lost in mainstream accounts of the history of development as a colonial endeavour or as a Western-imposed set of values and templates rooted in modernisation theory. A recent wave of scholarship, however, has sought to recover the agency of the ‘Global South’ in the history of internationalism and development, uncovering the plurality of internationalisms and the variety of political imaginaries that shaped twentieth-century ideas of development.
Nationalities Papers, 2020
This article explores the role of Yugoslav self-managed corporations in the global economy, with ... more This article explores the role of Yugoslav self-managed corporations in the global economy, with a particular attention to the late socialist period (1976–1991). Guided by a vision of a long-term integration of the Yugoslav economy into the international division of labor on the basis of equality and mutual interest, by the late 1970s the country’s foreign trade and hard currency revenue was boosted by a number of globally oriented corporate entities, some of which survived the demise of socialism and the dissolution of the country. These enterprises had a leading role as the country’s principal exporters and as the fulcrum of a web of economic contacts and exchanges between the Global South, Western Europe, and the Soviet Bloc. The article seeks to fill a historiographic gap by focusing on two major Yugoslav enterprises (Energoinvest and Pelagonija) that were based in the less-developed federal republics—Bosnia-Herzegovina and Macedonia. The article also investigates the transnational flow of ideas around the so-called “public enterprise,” its embeddedness in an interdependent global economy, and its visions for equitable development. Finally, the article explores these enterprises as enablers of social mobility and welfare, as well as spaces where issues of efficiency, planning, self-reliance, and self-management were negotiated.
Business History, 2020
This article charts the rise and fall of Yugoslavia’s global economic project through the case of... more This article charts the rise and fall of Yugoslavia’s global economic project through the case of Energoinvest, a large enterprise in Bosnia and Herzegovina. This company was the protagonist first of a ‘leap outwards’, embedded in Yugoslavia’s economic partnerships with the Global South. After a brief phase of reforms, its operations were halted abruptly by the outbreak of the war in Bosnia. Afterwards, the company was at the centre of two clashing visions of post-war economic development, and two different sets of notions about what the future configuration of Bosnia’s post-socialist economy should look like. Should the country rely on its previous socialist-global giants, or should it turn to SMEs development? This debate reveals a complex and long-term discussion about the prospects of post-socialist semi-peripheries in the global economy, about notions, visions, and expectations of ‘globality’, and about the legacies of socialist globalisation after the collapse of state socialism.
The authors offer an analysis of the property reforms that accompanied economic transformation in... more The authors offer an analysis of the property reforms that accompanied economic transformation in late socialist and postsocialist Yugoslavia, as experienced and narrated by industrial workers in Bosnia-Herzegovina and Serbia today. The property reforms carried out in these two countries between 1990 and the 2000s have profoundly influenced the narratives that workers form around their experience of economic transformation in the workplace. By analysing how industrial workers have developed a feeling of ownership towards their particular workplace, and how they now talk about that experience, the authors provide an explanation for workers' disillusionment and dissatisfaction towards privatisation reforms in recent years, and show how they have made sense of the seismic shifts in property relations that have accompanied economic reforms since 1989.
The “Bosnian Uprising” in February 2014 took its spark from the North-Eastern Bosnian town of
Tuz... more The “Bosnian Uprising” in February 2014 took its spark from the North-Eastern Bosnian town of
Tuzla – a traditionally left-wing city and the only municipality to have actively resisted the
“ethnicisation” of politics that scattered the rest of the country during the first multi-party elections
of 1990. Historically, Tuzla’s working class has been characterized with a legacy of positive interethnic
relations going back as far as the Austro-Hungarian period. The city’s collective memory as
a (non-ethnic) unicum, together with its strong Yugoslav identity, finds its codification in the survival
of a solid working-class culture. This article will show how Tuzla managed to survive ethnic
fragmentation in a time of severe political turmoil. It will be argued that the city displayed
considerable immunity to ethnic polarization, primarily by constructing an anti-nationalist, working
class narrative around which the citizens collectivized their historical identity.
The political disenfranchisement and institutionalised corruption in Bosnia is causing a never-en... more The political disenfranchisement and institutionalised corruption in Bosnia is causing a never-ending cycle of poverty and hopelessness.
A reflection on Bosnia-Hercegovina's protests in February 2014
Una riflessione sulla legislazione Europea per i cittadini Rom Kosovari
Books by Anna Calori
If Not Us, Who? Global workers against authoritarianism, fascism, and dictatorships, 2021
in the USA. He has conducted research into social transformation processes for more than 25 years... more in the USA. He has conducted research into social transformation processes for more than 25 years. His primary research interests are industrial sociology and the sociology of labour, local and workers' self-management, and social movements and protest, with a focus on South America and Europe. He has published more than 20 books, 11 films, and a multitude of academic articles, many of which have been translated into a variety of languages. Among them are Vom Protest zum sozialen Prozess: Betriebsbesetzungen und Arbei ten in Selbstverwaltung (VSA 2018) and The Class Strikes Back: SelfOrganised has given me during this global pandemic. And last but not least, I would like to thank my parents.
DIALECTICS OF THE GLOBAL: 3 , 2019
Dialectics of the Global presents results from interdisciplinary research focusing on the tension... more Dialectics of the Global presents results from interdisciplinary research focusing on the tensions between diversity and co-presence, integration and fragmentation as well as universalism and particularism under the global condition. This research is undertaken at the Center for Global and Area Studies at Leipzig University and in the framework of its manifold institutional partnerships. The series is edited by Matthias Middell, professor of cultural history at Leipzig University. During the Cold War, alternative globalization projects were underway: socialist Eastern Europe and left-leaning countries in the Third World maintained close economic relations. The two worlds traded and exchanged know-how and technology. This book examines the specifi c spaces of interaction of these exchanges and discusses the rationales of the protagonists oscillating between internationalist socialist solidarity and economic profi tability in the terms of capitalist globalization. www.degruyter.com
Book Reviews by Anna Calori
Abstracts by Anna Calori
Nationalities Papers, 2020
This article explores the role of Yugoslav self-managed corporations in the global economy, with ... more This article explores the role of Yugoslav self-managed corporations in the global economy, with a particular attention to the late socialist period (1976–1991). Guided by a vision of a long-term integration of the Yugoslav economy into the international division of labor on the basis of equality and mutual interest, by the late 1970s the country’s foreign trade and hard currency revenue was boosted by a number of globally oriented corporate entities, some of which survived the demise of socialism and the dissolution of the country. These enterprises had a leading role as the country’s principal exporters and as the fulcrum of a web of economic contacts and exchanges between the Global South, Western Europe, and the Soviet Bloc. The article seeks to fill a historiographic gap by focusing on two major Yugoslav enterprises (Energoinvest and Pelagonija) that were based in the less-developed federal republics—Bosnia-Herzegovina and Macedonia. The article also investigates the transnational flow of ideas around the so-called “public enterprise,” its embeddedness in an interdependent global economy, and its visions for equitable development. Finally, the article explores these enterprises as enablers of social mobility and welfare, as well as spaces where issues of efficiency, planning, self-reliance, and self-management were negotiated.
Business History, 2020
This article charts the rise and fall of Yugoslavia’s global economic dream through the case of E... more This article charts the rise and fall of Yugoslavia’s global economic dream through the case of Energoinvest, a large enterprise in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
This company was the protagonist first of a “leap outwards”, embedded in Yugoslavia’s economic partnerships with the Global South. After a brief phase of reforms, its operations were halted abruptly by the outbreak of the war in Bosnia. Afterwards, the company was at the centre of two clashing visions of post-war economic development, and two different sets of notions about what the future configuration of Bosnia’s post-socialist economy should look like. Should the country rely on its previous socialist-global giants, or should it turn to SMEs development?
This debate reveals a complex and long-term discussion about the prospects of post-socialist semi-peripheries in the global economy, about notions, visions, and expectations of “globality”, and about the legacies of socialist globalisation after the collapse of state socialism.
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Papers by Anna Calori
Tuzla – a traditionally left-wing city and the only municipality to have actively resisted the
“ethnicisation” of politics that scattered the rest of the country during the first multi-party elections
of 1990. Historically, Tuzla’s working class has been characterized with a legacy of positive interethnic
relations going back as far as the Austro-Hungarian period. The city’s collective memory as
a (non-ethnic) unicum, together with its strong Yugoslav identity, finds its codification in the survival
of a solid working-class culture. This article will show how Tuzla managed to survive ethnic
fragmentation in a time of severe political turmoil. It will be argued that the city displayed
considerable immunity to ethnic polarization, primarily by constructing an anti-nationalist, working
class narrative around which the citizens collectivized their historical identity.
Books by Anna Calori
Book Reviews by Anna Calori
Abstracts by Anna Calori
This company was the protagonist first of a “leap outwards”, embedded in Yugoslavia’s economic partnerships with the Global South. After a brief phase of reforms, its operations were halted abruptly by the outbreak of the war in Bosnia. Afterwards, the company was at the centre of two clashing visions of post-war economic development, and two different sets of notions about what the future configuration of Bosnia’s post-socialist economy should look like. Should the country rely on its previous socialist-global giants, or should it turn to SMEs development?
This debate reveals a complex and long-term discussion about the prospects of post-socialist semi-peripheries in the global economy, about notions, visions, and expectations of “globality”, and about the legacies of socialist globalisation after the collapse of state socialism.
Tuzla – a traditionally left-wing city and the only municipality to have actively resisted the
“ethnicisation” of politics that scattered the rest of the country during the first multi-party elections
of 1990. Historically, Tuzla’s working class has been characterized with a legacy of positive interethnic
relations going back as far as the Austro-Hungarian period. The city’s collective memory as
a (non-ethnic) unicum, together with its strong Yugoslav identity, finds its codification in the survival
of a solid working-class culture. This article will show how Tuzla managed to survive ethnic
fragmentation in a time of severe political turmoil. It will be argued that the city displayed
considerable immunity to ethnic polarization, primarily by constructing an anti-nationalist, working
class narrative around which the citizens collectivized their historical identity.
This company was the protagonist first of a “leap outwards”, embedded in Yugoslavia’s economic partnerships with the Global South. After a brief phase of reforms, its operations were halted abruptly by the outbreak of the war in Bosnia. Afterwards, the company was at the centre of two clashing visions of post-war economic development, and two different sets of notions about what the future configuration of Bosnia’s post-socialist economy should look like. Should the country rely on its previous socialist-global giants, or should it turn to SMEs development?
This debate reveals a complex and long-term discussion about the prospects of post-socialist semi-peripheries in the global economy, about notions, visions, and expectations of “globality”, and about the legacies of socialist globalisation after the collapse of state socialism.
Indro Montanelli was a liberal journalist, praised as one of the most important Italian intellectuals of post-WWII - in spite of his fascist and colonial sympathies.
Peppino Impastato was a far left activist and a journalist assassinated by Cosa Nostra in 1978, although his memory as a mafia victim has been nationally recognized only in the late 2000.
The statue of Montanelli has been vandalised as an act of anti-colonial and anti-fascist critique, in order to highlight the silence of Italian public historical discourse on its dark colonial past and its gendered elements. The placard of Impastato has been removed as an act of defiance to signal the discomfort with the authority of the act of memorialisation itself. In both cases, the vandalization is a localised act of subversion that assumes a political meaning: that of contradicting the historical narratives that underpin these public monuments. In both cases, these monuments are vandalised and re-instated multiple times, and thus embody precisely the perpetual nature of contestation of the process of public history formation.
What makes these two cases compelling, the paper argues, is precisely the role of the state, and its relationship with public memory. The anticolonial critique to the statue of Montanelli is directed towards the content (and omissions) of public memory at the hand of public institutions; the removal of the Impastato placard is an objection to the very role of public institutions as guarantors of memory. The paper will further reflect on the significance of local subversion in the shaping the liminalities between collective and public memory.