What if rural progress isn’t about government intervention but about the self-reliance and ingenuity of peasants themselves?

The Laissez-Faire Peasant: Post-Socialist Rural Development in Serbia subverts conventional wisdom on rural development by shifting the focus from state-led planning to the agency of peasants themselves. Rejecting the notion that rural populations are passive victims of top-down policies, Jovana Dikovic presents a compelling ethnographic study of three Serbian villages, where autonomy and local cooperation drive economic and social resilience. She introduces the concept of the “laissez-faire peasant”—a figure who thrives outside rigid government schemes, shaping rural development on their own terms. By examining the friction between state policies and the everyday strategies of rural communities, Dikovic uncovers how peasant autonomy not only resists external intervention but fosters sustainable and self-sufficient growth.

The first in-depth study of contemporary Serbian peasantry, this book reframes rural life as a site of innovation rather than stagnation. An area of interest for scholars of post-socialist transitions, rural development, and economic anthropology, The Laissez-Faire Peasant provides a new lens on how rural communities survive and adapt in a rapidly changing world.

Jovana Dikovic is an economic anthropologist, publicist, and head of Sustainable Development and Inclusive Growth at the Center for Corporate Responsibility and Sustainability, School of Management, Fribourg.

List of figures
List of tables
Glossary
Acknowledgements

1 The laissez-faire mentality: toward an understanding of peasant resilience, autonomy and institutional change

2 Peasants in theoretical and historical perspective

3 Nesting the laissez-faire mentality

4 Laissez-faire practices versus rural development policies

5 Local politics and rural development

6 Whose rural development?

7 Roma and rural development

8 Conclusion

References
Index