Since 2021, the Institute for Philosophy and Social Theory, University of Belgrade has established the “Zagorka Golubović” Annual Award which is intended for young researchers and their engaged research work. The Award is given for the best paper published in a scientific journal or a collection of scientific papers that approaches regional (Southeastern European) or broader social problems in an engaging way.
In the 2022 call for applications, nine candidates applied for the Award for papers published in 2021. The Committee considered all the applications and unanimously proposed that the laureate of the “Zagorka Golubović” Annual Award for 2022 should be Bojan Baća, a Marie Skłodowska-Curie scholar at the University of Gothenburg and a research associate at the Institute for Advanced Studies of the University of Montenegro, for his paper entitled “Practice Theory and Postsocialist Civil Society: Toward a New Analytical Framework” which was published in International Political Sociology 16, vol.1.
The Committee concluded that this research paper represents a synthesis of theoretical and empirical findings on civil society, social movements, protest politics, activist citizenship and unconventional political participation in Central and Eastern Europe; moreover, it displays a critical reflection that offers a new analytical framework for overcoming theoretical, conceptual and empirical dilemmas as well as extant problems in the existing literature primarily in terms of better identifying, describing and understanding the empirical reality of social engagement in post-socialist countries. The paper emphasizes the necessity of moving away from an abstract, universalistic and normative approach towards a rooted, contextual and critical understanding of post-socialist civil societies. As such, it provokes reflection and encourages action by bringing into focus protest practices that challenge dominant narratives, approaches and theories. With its high scientific quality, orientation towards engaged thinking and treatment of a topic which is of broad social importance, Bojan Baća’s paper responds in the best possible way to the propositions of the call for the “Zagorka Golubović” Annual Award.