Retracing Labor in Yugoslav Socialism . Reflections on Research and Archival Approaches

This study merges two perspectives, the historiographical and the archival, in order to capture and analyze key elements relating to issues encountered in records-based research into the labor history of Yugoslav socialism. In combining ongoing historiographical (social and labor history) and theoretical (archival science) research with auto-ethnographic, practice-based reflections, the author outlines several observations, facts, and propositions, which may be of help to both researchers and archivists. The essay accepts the recent resurgence of Yugoslav labor history as a premise upon which it discusses key problems relating to fieldwork, local and historical case study research, obstacles relating to communication and information, as well as pressing issues in the field of the archival profession, upon which it elaborates possible strategies and practical solutions to remedy the current conditions.