Between Emic and Etic: “Systematic” and “Creative” Destruction during the Croatian Shipbuilding Crisis

This article examines the trope of systematic destruction (sustavno/sistemsko uništavanje) and traces how it was mobilized during the 2018 Croatian shipbuilding crisis. First, an ethnographic vignette introduces the political actors and issues at stake during the crisis. The literature on post-socialist labor transformations and deindustrialization in South-East Europe is reviewed, and the tensions between political actors and policy are described. The concept of “predatory privatization” and the etic concept of “creative destruction” are then discussed as a prelude to an analysis of the emic concept of “systematic destruction.” Finally, the relations between the different concepts are described and the emotive power and political uses of the “systematic destruction” trope are explored and placed in the wider context of post-Yugoslav deindustrialization

Worker narratives of blame and responsibility during the 2018 crisis: the case of the Uljanik Shipyard, Croatia

This article describes worker narratives of discontent in relation to a series of crises that occurred at the Uljanik shipyard over the course of 2018. It draws on five months of fieldwork conducted in the period between two worker protests at the shipyard surrounding the late payment of wages, the second of which transformed into a large-scale strike. Emphasis is placed on the oft-repeated trope of "systematic" or "all-encompassing destruction" (sustavno uništavanje). This trope was often used to describe the perceived non-transparent, destructive activities of agents positioned at the top of a hierarchy (the firm management, the local authorities, the national government), acting with the hidden agenda of deliberately running the shipyard into the ground for their own personal gain. The article begins with a vignette highlighting several of the key actors and narratives present. The context of worker organizing and of the shipyard crisis are then elucidated. Following this, workers’ self-organizing during the crisis is examined. The affective landscape during this liminal period is described, with a focus on fear, anxiety, blame, rumours and a (sometimes reasonable) suspicion or paranoia. The trope of "systematic destruction" is discussed in relation to the affective landscape. It is then placed in the context of the importance of personalized relations in the regional political economy, and the implications of this political economy on patterns of blame and responsibility are analysed. Finally, the history of the trope of systematic destruction is discussed and the political power inherent in its ambiguities are explored

Exploring natural resource management tradeoffs in an agricultural landscape - an application of the MOSAIC model.

We describe a landscape scale non-linear discrete choice spatial optimisation model for identifying cost-effective strategies for achieving environmental goals. Spatial heterogeneity and configuration issues such as fencing costs, patch sizes and network linkages are explicitly accounted for and quasi-optimal allocations are determined using simulated annealing. Applications of the model being developed with New South Wales Catchment Management Authorities are discussed. These focus on targeting investments in revegetation to control dryland salinity and erosion and provide biodiversity benefits whilst minimising direct and opportunity costs. We compare our approach with alternate investment approaches.natural resource management, cost effectiveness, land use change, multicriteria, spatial optimisation, Resource /Energy Economics and Policy,