Master thesis project is focused on post-socialist transformation of social, political and
economic life in Macedonia. During fieldwork that took place in Kriva Palanka I mainly dealt
with concepts of hope and waiting, both recognized as constitutive part of Macedonian postsocialist experience. The latter is presented as liminal, interim period between Yugoslav
socialism and desired integration into European institutions, that are often seen as only
guarantee for at least partial stabilisation and progress of the country in the future. During
longstanding liminal phase, citizens are forced into various survival strategies that enable them
to cope with precarious present. Individual’s imagining of the future or would-be is closely
intertwined with hope and waiting, but also largely dependent on generational differences,
which are dealt with at the very end of the thesis.
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