On the heaviness of feathers, or what has culture got to do with the failure to establish an organic poultry production business in contemporary Serbia?

Abstract

This ca­se study starts from the the­sis that the analysis of li­fe hi­sto­ri­es, co­u­pled by ob­ser­va­tion of ac­tual be­ha­vi­o­ur, can con­tri­bu­te to a mo­re nu­an­ced un­der­stan­ding of the ways in which over-ar­ching ca­te­go­ri­es li­ke "so­cio-eco­no­mic cul­tu­res" ac­tu­ally fun­ction in the lo­cal and na­ti­o­nal set­tings. It is ba­sed on in-depth in­ter­vi­ews with a for­mer top ma­na­ger in the agro-ve­te­ri­nary sec­tion of a Ser­bian ex­port-im­port firm. The in­for­mant pre­sents the re­a­sons that ha­ve in­flu­en­ced him to le­a­ve his job and at­tempt to esta­blish an or­ga­nic agro-bu­si­ness, of­fers a per­so­nal vi­ew of po­li­ti­cal and cul­tu­ral fac­tors that ha­ve ca­u­sed the dec­li­ne of Yugo­slav and Ser­bian eco­no­mi­es, and ex­pla­ins how the­se fac­tors ha­ve in­flu­en­ced his bu­si­ness and fa­mily sur­vi­val stra­te­gi­es, among which ex­plo­i­ta­ti­on of fa­mily work and in­stru­men­ta­li­sa­tion of kin­ship and ne­ig­hbo­ur­hood net­works we­re most pro­mi­nent. The ca­se study thus re­ve­als the ac­tual "cul­tu­ral re­so­ur­ces" that the in­for­mant was ready to turn to in or­der to su­stain his en­tre­pre­ne­u­rial ef­forts. Next, the ca­se study sug­gests that "nar­row" pro­fes­si­o­nal cul­tu­res, li­ke ma­na­ge­rial or en­tre­pre­ne­u­rial cul­tu­res, can ha­ve mo­re im­pact on in­di­vi­dual be­ha­vi­o­ur than "bro­a­der" na­ti­o­nal or re­gi­o­nal cul­tu­res. In that sen­se, when the fun­cti­o­ning of na­ti­o­nal "so­cio-eco­no­mic cul­tu­re(s)" is pro­perly con­tex­tu­a­li­zed, then it has to be seen as ne­it­her the only, nor the prin­ci­pal fac­tor that can ex­pla­in ob­ser­va­ble be­ha­vi­o­ur, par­ti­cu­larly in ra­pidly chan­ging po­li­ti­cal, eco­no­mic, in­sti­tu­ti­o­nal, and le­gal set­tings, cha­rac­te­ri­sed by lin­ge­ring sta­te ca­pi­ta­lism, con­qu­e­ring pre­da­tory ca­pi­tal ac­cu­mu­la­tion, se­mi-fun­cti­o­nal le­gal system, agri­cul­tu­ral po­licy bre­ak­down, and ram­pant cor­rup­tion.