engleski

Charity’s dilemmas: an ethnography of gift-giving and social class in Croatia

The paper explores the discourses, practices, and effects of charitable giving and receiving in Croatia today. Analytically, the paper is especially concerned with the relationship between the socialist past in Croatia—a time when the state ostensibly provided for all basic needs—and the capitalist present, which has witnessed a proliferation of neoliberal discourse and practice. The ethnography encompasses contrasting sites: largely affluent local affiliates of global humanitarian organizations and a soup kitchen that caters to the poor. Three guiding topics structure the analysis. First, the perceived role of the state in providing care for the poor is examined, both during the socialist era and today. Secondly, the role of charitable giving and receiving is explored in the formation of class identities and differences in contemporary Croatia. Finally, the paper elucidates how both givers and recipients of charitable aid comprehend the gifts they offer and receive, and the social relations that these gifts entail. Over the course of our fine-grained ethnographic portrait, a nuanced perspective is developed on philanthropy, charity, and third sector activism in Croatia today, with attention to both the ongoing legacies of the socialist past and the logics, disciplines, and opportunities of the increasingly neoliberal present.

Charity ; social class ; socialism ; neoliberalism ; Croatia

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