Techno-Optimism and the End of Socialist Yugoslavia

• In Event: The Dynamics of Socialist Technocracy: Governance, Management, and Expertise in the Soviet Union, Yugoslavia, and Czechoslovakia, 1960s–1990s

Abstract

During the 1980s, as the deepening economic crisis in socialist Yugoslavia was turning into a political one, creating conditions ripe for the eventual dissolution of the country, science and technology came to play an unprecedentedly prominent role in the public discourse. Science and technology were seen both as culprits responsible for the crisis and a force uniquely suited to help overcome it. The paper discusses the conceptualizations of the relationship between science, technology, economy, and politics at the peak of crisis in the late 1980s. It argues that this was a curious “pessimist” manifestation of techno-optimism – a seeming contradiction in terms, yet one which captured the complexity of Yugoslavia’s predicament. Such a reading helps explain the absence of audacious technological visions and pessimist undertones even among Yugoslavia’s most prominent techno-optimists of the time. The proposals on how to utilize biomedicine, materials science, or communication and information technology in order to change the country’s economic trajectory were more interesting for their political-ideological than practical ramifications. They offer not only a glimpse into the conflict between the “technocrats” and defenders of self-managerial socialism (as well as within those groups), but also depict science- and technology-driven visions for the future of a country that would soon disintegrate.

Author

• Vedran Duancic, U of Klagenfurt (Austria)