Expired places and forgotten people: Spatial and temporal practices of Military Homeless People in Serbia

Abstract

Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork, this article explores spatial and temporal practices of former officers of the Yugoslav People’s Army and their families who came to Serbia in 1990s and live in ‘collective centres’ long after the wars have ended. It focuses on social, spatial and temporal aspects of home-making, and waiting for normal life in the situation of being dis/misplaced. Former officers of the Yugoslav People’s Army and their families, who call themselves Military Homeless People are stuck between and (betwixt) state recognition and social oblivion; hence, hope (or its lack), politics and strategies of waiting, and the experiences of time and place become an important element in anthropological problematizations.