Thesis Defence: Visualising Labour’s Agency in Socialist Yugoslavia: A Case Study of the Jugolinija Shipping Line (1945-1965)

Oriane Edwards, supervised by Dr. Luís Aguiar & Dr. Brigitte Le Normand, will defend their thesis titled “Visualising Labour’s Agency in Socialist Yugoslavia: A Case Study of the Jugolinija Shipping Line (1945-1965)” in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Interdisciplinary Graduate Studies – Power, Conflict & Ideas theme.

An abstract for Oriane Edwards’s thesis is included below.

Defences are open to all members of the campus community as well as the general public. Please email luis.aguiar@ubc.ca to receive the Zoom link for this defence.

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ABSTRACT

This thesis investigates the labour history of Socialist Yugoslavia from 1945-1965. In 1945, Yugoslavia followed what was effectively a Stalinist mode of production, featuring a centrally planned economy. In 1950, the country transitioned to a new model of socialist political economy called self-management, which ostensibly centered workers’ participation in factory
decision-making. I wanted to compare workers’ experiences in the factory across this period of transition. Ultimately, I ask: how did workers navigate the country’s evolving labour process during the early decades of Socialist Yugolsavia’s economic development?

I conducted a case study of the Jugolinija shipping line, using digital prosopography. Digital prosopography aggregates and then analyses the biographical data of a target population to identify patterns in that population’s collective experience. For my project, I created a database based on the employment records of 120 workers from Jugolinija and visualized the data, both using Neo4j.

I found that desertion and promotion rose simultaneously during the self-management period. I hypothesize that this is due to the reintroduction of unemployment during self management, especially since the loss of employment carried particularly stark consequences in Yugoslavia. Workers responded in divergent ways to this threat: one approach was to attempt to
advance in the company and preserve their job through their higher rank. Another, very different response was to leave the country outright by deserting, alongside a hemorrhage of people exiting through the land border with Italy. The massive outflow of workers pushed Yugoslavia to open its borders to legal labour migration, tourism, and increased openness with the West.