Plenum as Narrative (Structure): Student Protests in Serbia 2024-25

• In Event: Yugoslav (Re)Visions II: Bullies Flying into Oblivion: Art, Activism, and Direct Democracy in the Student Protests in Serbia

Abstract

Plenum as a form of social engagement has been pivotal during the student protests that began in December 2024 in Serbia, raising the question of what kind of social practice of change it refers to. After the previous student movements in the region, namely those at Faculty of Philosophy in Belgrade (2006, 2014) and the Faculty of Philosophy in Zagreb (2009), handbooks such as “A Short Guide to Student Self-Organization," (in: Borba za znanje: Studentski protesti 2006/The Fight for Knowledge: Student Protests 2006, 2006) and Blokadna kuharica (Blockade Cookbook, 2009) appeared, trying to provide guidelines for structuring plenums. However, these handbooks prove insufficient for understanding the unpredictable practice of a plenum, because its specifics are evolving from rapidly changing daily events. The plenum, it turns out, functions as an oral mythical narrative that summarizes previous plenum experiences but also represents a narrative structure that is open to permanent variations, additions, and transformations. This paper analyzes the 2024-25 student plenums as a narrative about the "revolutionary machine" of direct democracy and social change, focusing on its dominant concepts such as unity, mourning, solidarity, sovereignty, love, encounter, general strike, liberation, uprising, and the rule of law.

Author

• Tatjana Rosic Ilic