CEU Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2023
| Author | Hergan, Rosa |
|---|---|
| Title | Protest as Insurgent Citizenship Practice against Hydropower Development in Kosovo's Periphery |
| Summary | Following the enclosure of mountain rivers in the municipality of Štrpce in southern-eastern Kosovo as a result of a small hydropower development, residents continue to look with hope for the delivery of justice and the undoing of these infrastructural developments. The residents’ hopes are challenged by the daily struggles of informal political exchanges, failing water infrastructure, and rising unemployment. Despite these obstacles, the power of the rivers themselves has infused hope into the community. During the protests against the construction of hydropower plants between 2018-2020, the rivers played a vital role in shaping the community's insurgent citizenship practices. This ethnography aims to describe and discuss the dynamics of urban citizenship and politics of legalism by residents of the municipality who resisted the plunder of water resources by political and economic elites. By examining citizenship practices of resistance against hydropower plants between 2018 and 2020 in the context of Serbian parallel governance structures in the municipality, I intend to present and discuss the relational dimensions of water infrastructures. As well as how it mediates renegotiations of political subjectivity and belonging in the relationship between citizens and the state. I did fieldwork in October for several months in different areas of Kosovo but mainly in the municipality of Štrpce. Based on ethnographic research, I argue that residents’ collective action against the small hydropower plants in the municipality act as a form of “insurgent citizenship” (Holston, 2008) that seeks to reformulate the existing forms of differential access to rights and public services among the inhabitants in the municipality. |
| Supervisor | Markkula, Johanna; Kóczé, Angéla |
| Department | Sociology MA |
| Full text | https://www.etd.ceu.edu/2023/hergan_rosa.pdf |
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