Unreachable youth: physical education, national mobilization and intergenerational conflict in interwar Yugoslavia. The case of the Yugoslav Sokol

For the Yugoslav Sokol, the leading organization dedicated to physical education in Interwar Yugoslavia, the youth was both an object and a tool of conquest. The education of younger generations was at the heart of its project of creating a new 'Yugoslav man' and a key asset in enforcing i...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:European review of history = Revue européene d'histoire Vol. 31; no. 3; pp. 370 - 399
Main Author: Papovic, Jovana
Format: Journal Article
Language:English
Published: Abingdon Routledge 03.05.2024
Taylor & Francis Ltd
Subjects:
Corpus analysis
Discrepancies
Economic development
Education
Educational programs
Entertainment
Intergenerational relationships
Interwar Yugoslavia
Legitimacy
Mobilization
Physical education
Political development
Political participation
Sokol
State building
visual history
Youth
Youth organizations
Yugoslavia
ISSN:1350-7486, 1469-8293
Online Access:Get full text
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Summary:For the Yugoslav Sokol, the leading organization dedicated to physical education in Interwar Yugoslavia, the youth was both an object and a tool of conquest. The education of younger generations was at the heart of its project of creating a new 'Yugoslav man' and a key asset in enforcing its legitimacy as an important agent in state-building. Yet, while the Sokol multiplied its initiatives to attract children and youth, these showed a contradictory interest in the organization. Moreover, besides the epic overtones of the official's narrative, intergenerational relations were often contentious: while the older representatives expected the younger ones to commit to the Yugoslav national project, the latter were frequently more interested in popular entertainment, and, even at times, in radical forms of political engagement. By critically analysing a diverse corpus of sources - publication and archives related to the Sokol's educational programmes together with different types of visual documents - as well as focusing on its local implementation in the Belgrade Sokol district, this article observes the discrepancies between the Sokol's ambitions and its reception on the ground, trying thus to shed light on the young people's experience and agency inside the organization.
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ISSN:1350-7486
1469-8293
DOI:10.1080/13507486.2023.2297767