Enacting Resistance, Performing Citizenship: Trajectories of Political Subjectification in the Post-Democratic Condition

Abstract

Dominated by the ‘weak postsocialist civil society’ thesis, Central and Eastern Europe has generally been uninspiring for social movement scholars. In recent years, a growing body of scholarship has challenged this pessimistic notion, highlighting the emergence of grassroots activism. What remains under-researched, however, is the process of political subjectification of society’s apolitical segments through contentious practices. Informed by pragmatic sociology, this article explores three case studies – of student, civic and environmental movements, respectively – that demonstrate how citizens constituted themselves as collective political subjects by performatively enacting their citizenship through resistance in post-democratic Montenegro (2010–2015). Through analysis of news media sources and interviews with activists, this article postulates three trajectories of political subjectification – political becoming, political bonding and political embodying – by which citizens (re)gain their civic autonomy, allowing them to challenge dominant power relations and to attain political legitimacy to think, speak and act as relevant political actors on the public stage.

Autocratic Power and Older Citizens: The Political Subjectification of Retirees in Belarus

“…In this way, my study makes three key theoretical contributions. First, it advances sociological research on mobilisations around everyday problems in Central and East Europe as a means of citizens' political subjectification (Baća, 2023;Jacobsson and Korolczuk, 2020). I have shown that a portion of older Belarusians resists their marginalisation in the job market and urban development, but in the absence of intergenerational solidarity in these domains, their struggles are systematically depoliticised by the official discourse and by the citizens themselves.…”

“…In this way, my study makes three key theoretical contributions. First, it advances sociological research on mobilisations around everyday problems in Central and East Europe as a means of citizens' political subjectification (Baća 2022;Jacobsson and Korolczuk 2019) Second, my analysis shifts away from the tendency of existing research (Astapova et al 2022: 2, 27) to define the significance of resistance in autocracies through its ability to lead to democracy. Rather than focusing on the possibilities of changing societal structures, I explore how authoritarian oppression brings into being individuals' efforts to claim their rights.…”