Vol.17,No.2 | [Article] Student Activism and Mobilizations in Pre and Post-breakup Slovenia and Croatia - Audiovisual Evidence -

This article bears evidence of young people’s civic engagement in two of the  successor  states  of  former  Yugoslavia  that  more  or  less  border  the Mediterranean, as (re)presented in local documentary films after 2000. Starting with a still running radio station established as early on as 1969 in the Slovenian city of Ljubljana, it then focuses on students’ mobilizations in Zagreb and other Croatian universities in the period following the  turbulent transition  from socialism to (neo)liberalism. The films reveal both a rich cultural and local cinematic  tradition  and  most  importantly  instances  of  young  citizens’ familiarity  with  non-institutionalized  modes  of  action  existing  in  former Yugoslavia  and  much  more  so  in  the  post-breakup  era.  In  a  Balkan/ Mediterranean region rather peripherally mentioned in media coverage and scholarly research, this kind of activism had been aligned with movements taking place in Western countries appealing for democratization in education and society both in the 60s and the first decades of globalization.