The main focus of our paper is on a specific form of democratic discourse, used in different
types of social engagement actions (petitions, speeches, intellectual engagement, ad hoc citizens’ protests,
social movements etc.), that attempts to politicize a certain issue by challenging the neoliberal principle of
instrumentalism which argues that democratic procedures can legitimately be abandoned in the name of
the greater efficiency of socio-economic development. Therefore, we start from identifying the discourse
of “neoliberal instrumentalism” and its relative success in delegitimizing the welfare state and mechanisms
of democratic decision making and we formulate a conceptual model of a democratic counter-narrative
named “anti-instrumentalist discourse”. Through empirical analyses of discourse used by We Won't Let
Belgrade D(r)own initiative, that mobilized against the Serbian government's urban project Belgrade Waterfront we try to illustrate the applicability and the heuris...tic value of the proposed model. The data for
the analyses were collected through 1) desk analysis of available secondary data on the Belgrade Water-front project, 2) official statements and proclamations of the We Won't Let Belgrade D(r)own initiative, 3)
semi-structured interviews with four core members of the initiative
Keywords:
anti-instrumentalist discourse / deliberative democracy / neoliberal instrumentalism / social engagement / We Won’t let Belgrade D(r)own initiative
Source:
Partecipazione e Conflitto The Open Journal of Sociopolitical Studies, 2019, 12
TY - JOUR
AU - Fiket, Irena
AU - Ivković, Marjan
AU - Pudar Draško, Gazela
AU - Vasiljević, Jelena
PY - 2019
UR - http://rifdt.instifdt.bg.ac.rs/123456789/2639
AB - The main focus of our paper is on a specific form of democratic discourse, used in different
types of social engagement actions (petitions, speeches, intellectual engagement, ad hoc citizens’ protests,
social movements etc.), that attempts to politicize a certain issue by challenging the neoliberal principle of
instrumentalism which argues that democratic procedures can legitimately be abandoned in the name of
the greater efficiency of socio-economic development. Therefore, we start from identifying the discourse
of “neoliberal instrumentalism” and its relative success in delegitimizing the welfare state and mechanisms
of democratic decision making and we formulate a conceptual model of a democratic counter-narrative
named “anti-instrumentalist discourse”. Through empirical analyses of discourse used by We Won't Let
Belgrade D(r)own initiative, that mobilized against the Serbian government's urban project Belgrade Waterfront we try to illustrate the applicability and the heuristic value of the proposed model. The data for
the analyses were collected through 1) desk analysis of available secondary data on the Belgrade Water-front project, 2) official statements and proclamations of the We Won't Let Belgrade D(r)own initiative, 3)
semi-structured interviews with four core members of the initiative
PB - University of Salento, SIBA
T2 - Partecipazione e Conflitto The Open Journal of Sociopolitical Studies
T1 - The discourse of anti-instrumentalism: exploring a conceptual model through the case study of the We won’t let Belgrade d(r)own initiative
VL - 12
DO - 10.1285/i20356609v12i3p898
ER -
@article{
author = "Fiket, Irena and Ivković, Marjan and Pudar Draško, Gazela and Vasiljević, Jelena",
year = "2019",
abstract = "The main focus of our paper is on a specific form of democratic discourse, used in different
types of social engagement actions (petitions, speeches, intellectual engagement, ad hoc citizens’ protests,
social movements etc.), that attempts to politicize a certain issue by challenging the neoliberal principle of
instrumentalism which argues that democratic procedures can legitimately be abandoned in the name of
the greater efficiency of socio-economic development. Therefore, we start from identifying the discourse
of “neoliberal instrumentalism” and its relative success in delegitimizing the welfare state and mechanisms
of democratic decision making and we formulate a conceptual model of a democratic counter-narrative
named “anti-instrumentalist discourse”. Through empirical analyses of discourse used by We Won't Let
Belgrade D(r)own initiative, that mobilized against the Serbian government's urban project Belgrade Waterfront we try to illustrate the applicability and the heuristic value of the proposed model. The data for
the analyses were collected through 1) desk analysis of available secondary data on the Belgrade Water-front project, 2) official statements and proclamations of the We Won't Let Belgrade D(r)own initiative, 3)
semi-structured interviews with four core members of the initiative",
publisher = "University of Salento, SIBA",
journal = "Partecipazione e Conflitto The Open Journal of Sociopolitical Studies",
title = "The discourse of anti-instrumentalism: exploring a conceptual model through the case study of the We won’t let Belgrade d(r)own initiative",
volume = "12",
doi = "10.1285/i20356609v12i3p898"
}
Fiket, I., Ivković, M., Pudar Draško, G.,& Vasiljević, J.. (2019). The discourse of anti-instrumentalism: exploring a conceptual model through the case study of the We won’t let Belgrade d(r)own initiative. in Partecipazione e Conflitto The Open Journal of Sociopolitical Studies
University of Salento, SIBA., 12.
https://doi.org/10.1285/i20356609v12i3p898
Fiket I, Ivković M, Pudar Draško G, Vasiljević J. The discourse of anti-instrumentalism: exploring a conceptual model through the case study of the We won’t let Belgrade d(r)own initiative. in Partecipazione e Conflitto The Open Journal of Sociopolitical Studies. 2019;12.
doi:10.1285/i20356609v12i3p898 .
Fiket, Irena, Ivković, Marjan, Pudar Draško, Gazela, Vasiljević, Jelena, "The discourse of anti-instrumentalism: exploring a conceptual model through the case study of the We won’t let Belgrade d(r)own initiative" in Partecipazione e Conflitto The Open Journal of Sociopolitical Studies, 12 (2019),
https://doi.org/10.1285/i20356609v12i3p898 . .
