CEU Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2026
| Author | Golušin, Slobodan |
|---|---|
| Title | Contested, Temporary and Uneven: Value Capture Dynamics in the Serbian IT Sector |
| Summary | The thesis explores the evolution of value-capture dynamics in the Serbian IT sector, from its plugging into global outsourcing networks to the present. This outsourcing-dominated sector is simultaneously hailed as a major economic opportunity with immense opportunities for workers and firms, yet also cast as peripheral and fragile. Moving beyond narratives of economic development as either guaranteed by integration into global production or constrained by global economic dependencies, I analyse economic development processes through the lens of value capture. Using the Global Production Networks framework alongside other critical economic-geography approaches, I demonstrate how the outcomes of IT outsourcing are contested, temporary, and uneven, shaped by constant competition within shifting economic cycles and embedded in global economic asymmetries. I conceptualise three phases in the Serbian IT sector development: integration, expansion, and contraction, based on how each phase structures value-capture dynamics for local firms and workers. In the integration phase, I analyse value capture through intermediation between low-cost local labour and foreign clients; in the expansion phase, I examine intensifying inter-firm competition and the broadening of opportunities for workers; and in the contraction phase, I trace the shrinking scope for value capture and the cyclical character of outsourcing. Conceptually, the thesis advances a multifaceted understanding of value capture as contingent on changing production network dynamics, while also emphasising the active role of firms and workers in navigating shifting windows of opportunity. Empirically, the thesis is grounded in a study of Serbian IT firms and workers conducted between 2021 and 2024. |
| Supervisor | Bodnár, Judit; Sopranzetti, Claudio |
| Department | Sociology PhD |
| Full text | https://www.etd.ceu.edu/2026/golusin_slobodan.pdf |
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