The Land at the Bottom of the Lake: Development through Nature in Yugoslav (Post-)Socialism

This paper centers on land as the connecting thread of different development projects in the Dalmatian hinterland (Croatia): the building of a dam and a reservoir as part of the grand Yugoslav socialist electrification of the 1950s, and the post-socialist profit-driven investments in renewable energy launched in the 2010s. A focus on land brings together studies of land politics in Eastern Europe with studies of human–nature relations and makes two contributions. First, I focus on the materiality of the land as crucial for creating socio-natural worlds. The materiality of karst is not separate from the social world but actively engages planners, engineers, and the people living in projects that aim at political, social, and ecological transformations. Second, I show how the distinct socio-natural worlds of the past continue to reverberate and shape our engagement with the problems of today and visions of the future. While the current neoliberal conjuncture of post-socialist and post-war politics is rightfully dissected, the article highlights the importance of understanding the layering of improvement schemes that seek to transform both the people and the environment.