Summary / Abstract: This paper examines political power as one of the central concepts for any attempt to understand politics. Its primary aim is to point out the limitations of classical conceptions of power that equate power with domination and view it as a possession used to impose one’s will, either publicly and openly or indirectly and covertly. To this end, the paper draws on the conceptualizations of power developed by Hannah Arendt and Michel Foucault to highlight the advantages of more comprehensive approaches that understand power as a constitutive force of social reality. Through an analysis of their conceptions, I suggest that power should be understood as a productive and creative relation of forces, a continuous and omnipresent interplay that lies at the heart of all social practices. Power, in this sense, exists only insofar as it is exercised; it cannot be possessed, accumulated, or stored for future use. Rather than being a static property, power is an ongoing process that emerges through action, interaction, and practice. While the paper emphasizes the analytical advantages of Foucault’s more comprehensive understanding of power in comparison to Hannah Arendt’s communicative model, I also argue that Foucault’s framework remains incomplete. Specifically, I suggest that a fuller understanding of the techniques and tactics of power and, crucially, of the conditions under which resistance to and rejection of power emerge, requires the incorporation of theories of performance. Such an expansion helps address what remains the weakest point of Foucault’s analytics of power: a systematic account of how resistance arises, is enacted, and disrupts or reconfigures existing power relations.
Keywords: power, political power, productive power, power relations, power/knowledge, Arendt, Foucault, performance, performativity, resistance
Summary / Abstract: This article analyzes the Hujum campaign (1920–1930) as a paradigmatic example of Soviet women’s “emancipation” in the southern and southeastern regions of Soviet Central Asia, understood simultaneously as a modernizing project and as a form of internal colonialism. Drawing on postcolonial feminist critique and the methodological framework of intersectionality, the article demonstrates that the gender subordination of Muslim women cannot be separated from complex relations of ethnic hierarchy, religion, class, and cultural domination. Through an analysis of primary sources (party resolutions, legal acts, propaganda texts, and memoirs), as well as relevant secondary literature, the ambivalences of Soviet policy are revealed: on the one hand, the formal expansion of rights and the creation of women’s institutions (Zhenotdel, clubs, literacy campaigns), and on the other, the violent “liberation” of women’s bodies (the removal of the veil) as an instrument of Sovietization, the destabilization of local norms, and the weakening of pan-Islamic identity structures. Particular analytical attention is devoted to the concept of the “surrogate proletariat” introduced by Massell, which explains why women of the East became a political lever in the absence of an indigenous industrial proletariat. The central research question posed is: “What did freedom mean for women in Soviet Central Asia, and what was its cost?”
Keywords: Hujum, Soviet Central Asia, Zhenotdel, internal colonialism, postcolonial feminism, intersectionality, Sovietization, politics of the body, paranja/veil, surrogate proletariat
Summary / Abstract: This paper examines theoretical conceptualizations of contemporary tourism within the frameworks of travel and leisure in the social sciences and humanities. Through a systematic review of key texts in tourism studies that address the historical development of tourism and various categories of travelers in the Western context, the paper aims to highlight the theoretical limitations of understanding tourism primarily from the perspective of (Western) tourists. By offering a critical assessment of dominant approaches to tourism, the author emphasizes the importance of feminist and Marxist perspectives, with particular attention to the lack of approaches that include seasonal migrant workers in tourism as significant subjects in the theoretical conceptualization of this phenomenon.
Summary / Abstract: Relaying on the authors’ experience in teaching feminist theory and criticism at all levels of academic studies (BA, MA, and PhD) and dedication to practice of feminist pedagogy in the classroom, the paper aims to show gains as well as challenges in teaching interdisciplinary courses in feminist theory and to critically examine the presence of feminist theory in courses taught at Faculty of Philology and Faculty of Political Science of the University in Belgrade. Authors analyze syllabi, other course materials (both translated and published in Serbian), students’ attitudes towards the courses at the beginning and end of the semester, students’ feedback, and the challenges of anti-gender discourses in academia, in an effort to create a feminist classroom. The necessary attention is paid to the different ways in which feminist theory has been institutionalized at two faculties of the University of Belgrade, as well as to the collaboration between them.
Summary / Abstract: The paper presents a comparative analysis of two feminist journals: Analize – Journal of Gender and Feminist Studies (2013–) and Genero: časopis za feminističku teoriju i studije kulture (Genero: journal of feminist theory and cultural studies) (2002–), to explore the relationship between feminist journals and their institutional frameworks, primarily non-governmental organizations and universities. The study also examines the dominant thematic and problem-oriented content in these journals, as well as the circumstances that have contributed to their differentiation. The first part of the paper outlines the contexts in which feminist-theoretical activities emerged in Serbia and Romania. The second part presents the main characteristics of the Romanian Society for Feminist Analyses (AnA) (Societatea de Analize Feministe AnA), as well as both publication periods of Analize – Journal of Gender and Feminist Studies. This is followed by an overview of the main features of the Center for Women’s Studies (Centar za ženske studije) in Belgrade, including a brief account of the key attributes of Ženske studije: časopis za feminističku teoriju (Women’s Studies: A Journal of Feminist Theory) (1995–2002), and the characteristics of Genero: journal of feminist theory and cultural studies (2002–). The central part of the paper consists of a problem-oriented content analysis of Analize – Journal of Gender and Feminist Studies (2013–) and Genero: Journal of Feminist Theory and Cultural Studies (2002–). The conclusion highlights the relationship between changes in the thematic and editorial policies of both journals and broader transformations in higher education and the social context.
Summary / Abstract: By critically analyzing the issues of the data gender gap and the underrepresentation of women in technology roles, this text aims to explore how artificial intelligence perpetuates and produces gender inequalities. In dominant analyses of artificial intelligence from a gender perspective, it is often highlighted that the data behind machine learning lacks information about women, and that the gender gap in the labor market deepens due to their low participation in the development and implementation of artificial intelligence. Starting from the assumption that technology is not detached from existing social structures and knowledge concepts, it is argued that the focus of gender analysis of artificial intelligence should shift from data diversification to the development of alternative models of knowledge acquisition and production. By building on insights from feminist epistemology, specifically feminist standpoint theories, this paper explores whether algorithms, modeled within the frameworks of capitalist relations and universal knowledge in traditional epistemology, can be used to eliminate gender and other inequalities, or whether it is necessary to develop a completely new computer language. Also, drawing on feminist labor theories, it is concluded that closing the gender gap in the labor market cannot be reduced to women’s non-participation in the development of artificial intelligence, nor can it be studied without addressing the lower status of women’s labor within capitalist society.
Summary / Abstract: This paper examines how selected print media outlets in Serbia reported on cases of femicide, the gender-based killing of women, during 2024. By applying clearly defined frames identified in feminist literature, the study aims to determine what such reporting looks like and whether the coverage in four print media outlets – Danas, Blic, Kurir, and Večernje novosti – differs from the frames identified in the selected literature. The findings show that the reporting practices of the domestic print press largely align with the frames previously recognized and used, pointing to a global problem in media coverage of this issue, with certain specific features mostly observed in the contradictory nature of Blic’s coverage.
Keywords: media, femicide, Serbia, violence against women, sensationalism, tabloid press, framing theory, feminist media theory
