State Kinning and Kinning the State in Serbian Elder Care Programs

Abstract

In this article, we analyze processes of kinning within stateinitiated programs of elder care in Serbia in order to explore how images of the state as an entity are cast as distinct from the domain of the family. We present data from the fieldwork we conducted in two settlements, in northern and central Serbia respectively. Contrary to the findings of many anthropological studies of the state, state actors in these cases surpass the expectations of citizens. Nevertheless, within complex processes of kinning between state-paid care workers and their clients, dominant images of an absent state as well as state-kinship boundaries are (re)produced. Placing this boundary work within the evolving relations at the center of the analysis underlines the merits of rethinking the interconnections between kinship and the state with a relational focus.Keywords: anthropology of the state, boundary work, elder care, kinship, relational approach to the state, Serbia, state images, state kinning "You become kin [srodiš se] with these people," said Ljilja, a state-paid home care worker in central Serbia, reflecting on the relations with her elderly clients in February 2010.

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Approaching Actually Existing Neoliberalisms: Citizenship, Responsibility, and (Health)care in Anthropology

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