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Infrastructures of Continuity and Change a Material Culture Approach to Finance, Heating and Maintenance in Belgrade Homes

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Infrastructures of Continuity and Change a Material Culture Approach to Finance, Heating and Maintenance in Belgrade Homes Infrastructures of continuity and change A material culture approach to finance, heating and maintenance in Belgrade homes Charlotte Johnson A thesis submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the School of Geography, Politics and Sociology at Newcastle University December 2013 Abstract This thesis explores the relationship between people, their things and socio-economic change. Based on Belgraders’ experiences of Serbia’s economic transition, it focuses on the material impacts produced inside homes as objects are revalued, ownership lines are redrawn and domestic space is reconfigured. These material alterations are linked to social changes as they provoke residents to reflect on how their state, neighbourhoods or families should be organised. I focus on five residential buildings built at different points in the city’s development, from 1939 to 2010. I study the buildings’ archives and the activities of today’s residents to trace relationships constructed through infrastructure, drawing attention to three types of systems that permeate domestic space. I follow the consumer credit industry’s IT architecture and find how financial value is created as households manage their day to day living. I explore the municipal heating system’s liberalisation and find it is reshaping ideas about social good and individual autonomy. I study the buildings' communal spaces and find an institutional vacuum in which residents self-organise to maintain their buildings and manage social relations. I argue that these infrastructures - finance, heating and maintenance - are the basis for both continuity and change as they reach into the domestic sphere to shape the relationship between people and things, but are themselves reworked. Supplementing my anthropological approach with literature from STS and economic geography, I find that the regulatory reforms partially rework the fabric of Belgrade homes. This leads me to argue that transition changes the nature of things and can be interpreted as a loss of ontological certainty, but I show that this is an uneven reworking of materials. Visions of the socialist good life, corruption from the 1990s turmoil and aspirations of liberalism can all be found scripted into the contemporary organisation of housing in Belgrade. Contents Chapter 1. Introduction ................................................................................................ 1 1.1. A note on terminology used ............................................................................. 12 Chapter 2. Understanding change through materiality .............................................. 14 2.1. Introduction ...................................................................................................... 14 2.2. Critical insights from material culture .............................................................. 15 2.3. Infrastructure and sociotechnical hybrids ........................................................ 21 2.4. The materiality of finance ................................................................................ 32 2.5. Conclusion ........................................................................................................ 38 Chapter 3. Researching life in the city ........................................................................ 41 3.1. Introduction ...................................................................................................... 41 3.2. Participant observation in the city ................................................................... 44 3.3. Learning about infrastructure .......................................................................... 50 3.1.1 Finance ................................................................................................................ 53 3.1.2 Heating ................................................................................................................ 54 3.1.3 Building maintenance ......................................................................................... 56 3.1.4 Interviewing ........................................................................................................ 57 3.4. Going inside homes .......................................................................................... 60 3.5. Selecting and researching the Buildings ........................................................... 65 3.6. Evaluating the research design ........................................................................ 73 Chapter 4. Building Biographies .................................................................................. 76 4.1. Introduction ...................................................................................................... 76 4.2. Stefana Ulica 1939-40 (Building 1) ................................................................... 79 4.3. Bulevar Lumumba 1972-1976 (Building 2) ...................................................... 89 4.4. Dunja Ulica 2009-2010 (Building 3) ................................................................ 101 4.5. Conclusion ...................................................................................................... 110 Chapter 5. Finance and the value of domestic space ............................................... 112 5.1. Introduction .................................................................................................... 112 5.2. Spare rooms and international finance .......................................................... 114 5.3. The theory and practice of credit bureaux ..................................................... 121 5.4. Forms of patronage and power ...................................................................... 126 5.5. Consumer credit and financial subjects ......................................................... 130 5.6. The tangling of data and family ...................................................................... 135 5.7. Conclusion ...................................................................................................... 140 Chapter 6. Radiators, a source of uncertainty .......................................................... 144 6.1. Introduction .................................................................................................... 144 6.2. Accepting the state ......................................................................................... 146 6.3. Redefining the empirics .................................................................................. 151 6.4. Creating the consumer ................................................................................... 158 6.5. A failure in objectification .............................................................................. 165 6.6. Conclusion ...................................................................................................... 168 Chapter 7. Maintaining buildings, creating certainty ............................................... 170 7.1. Introduction .................................................................................................... 170 7.1. Yugoslavia’s bifurcated housing system ......................................................... 174 7.2. Usurping space ............................................................................................... 181 7.3. The urge to tidy .............................................................................................. 190 7.4. Conclusion ...................................................................................................... 196 Chapter 8. Conclusion ............................................................................................... 200 Appendix 1: Summary of resident interviews ............................................................... 233 List of Figures Figure 4.1 The rough location of Building 1 marked on the General Plan of Belgrade 1939 (Source: Urbel, Belgrade Institute of Urban Planning) ............................................................... 80 Figure 4.2 Plan showing the new façade for the extension of Building 1, Stefana Ulica (Source: Belgrade City Archive) ................................................................................................................. 86 Figure 4.3 Plan showing the altered layout of the flats in the extension of Building 1 (Source: Belgrade City Archive) (insert) .................................................................................................... 87 Figure 4.4 Planning New Belgrade; A maquette viewed from the perspective of the old city (Source: Kovačević et al. 1961) ................................................................................................... 90 Figure 4.5 The rough location of Building 2 marked on the General Urban Plan of Belgrade, 1972 (Source: Urbel, Belgrade Institute of Urban Planning) ...................................................... 93 Figure 4.6 Belgrade Bank celebrates its savers with an advert in the national newspaper Politika on world savings day, 1973 (Source Politika, 31st October 1973, author’s photograph) .................................................................................................................................................... 96 Figure 4.7 Converting space in Building 2; turning a studio into a 2 bedroom flat for a family of four (Source: Author’s photo) ................................................................................................... 100 Figure 4.8 The rough location of Building 3 marked
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