Refurnishing the Home in Post-War Neoliberalism: Consumption Strategies in the Sarajevan Household Economy

This article ethnographically explores the consumption practices and strategies of Sarajevan households, framing them in the economic and socio-cultural dynamics that affected family life following the war and post socialist transformation. Displacement and the collapse of the socialist economic system led to Sarajevans suffering downward socio-economic mobility and widespread mistrust of the world outside. Despite the material issues that could be moral justification for the consumption strategies driven by strict necessity and familism, this article will consider how (humanitarian and interpersonal) donations and credits are used to convey a sort of symbolic reappropriation of the home and to strive to reposition the household’s socio-economic status. Ultimately the article takes into account how these consumption strategies reshape social relations within and outside the family in the peculiar conjuncture of post-war neoliberalism