On the occasion of 50 years since the defeat and political collapse of the reform party leadership  in Serbia (1972–2022), represented by Koča Popović, Marko Nikezić, Latinka Perović, Mirko Tepavac and others, The Research Laboratory of Socialism and (Post)Yugoslav Studies (YugoLab), at the Institute for Philosophy and Social Theory University of Belgrade, organises a scientific conference on 7 November 2022: Democratic socialism: the Yugoslav experience and its contemporary reflections.

With numerous scholars and researchers from various social and humanistic disciplines from Serbia, Croatia, Slovenia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Macedonia, the conference would offer new insights, historical and contemporary, into the key features of the idea of ​​democratic socialism. From a historical perspective, the Yugoslav experience provides valuable insight about the construction of a socialist alternative that formed the basic framework of Yugoslav society. The ideas of Yugoslav democratic (self-governing) socialism had a wide global resonance, forming the main pillar of Yugoslav international prestige and engagement.

Bearing this in mind, the conference will look at the important phenomena of Yugoslav socialism since 1948: the constant tendencies of its reforms in an attempt at social, political, and economic democratisation, with the aim of sustainability and progress of the specific Yugoslav path. The conference intends to answer inevitable questions, such as the results of the Yugoslav democratic transformation, knowledge about the possibilities and limitations of democratic socialism in Yugoslavia, its effects, origins and legacy. Also, the conference would pay attention to the contemporary global tendencies of democratic socialism, discussions about actuality and relevance of its ideas in the hegemonic neoliberal worldview.

Book of Abstracts and Program