Ne Talasaj (Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Serbia and Montenegro)

Ne Talasaj 🇧🇦 🇭🇷 🇲🇪 🇷🇸
Location: Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Serbia and Montenegro
Definition: Avoiding problems by complying with unfair unwritten rules
Keywords: Croatia – Serbia – Bosnia and Herzegovina – Montenegro – Western Balkans – Yugoslavia – Europe – Compliance – Powerlessness
Clusters: Conformity – Control
Author: Emina Ribo
Affiliation: Alumna, School of Slavonic and East European Studies, University College London, UK

By Emina Ribo, Alumna, School of Slavonic and East European Studies, University College London, UK

Ne talasaj literally translates as ‘don’t make waves’ and practices of not making waves are particularly spread in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Serbia and Montenegro. It is an expression of conformity used in both the private and professional contexts, indicating that it is not desirable to question an unwritten rule, social norm or power structure and disrupt the status quo. Whilst being an expression of conformity, it is considered to be a common attitude of the people associated with powerlessness and inability to change the state of affairs.

Ne talasaj is derived from the Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian verb talasati meaning “to make a wave” (talas is a wave). However, talasati can also be used figuratively, meaning to “agitate” or “disrupt” something. The ne talasaj behaviour is a case of ambivalence (Ledeneva 2018: 11). By practicing ne talasaj, an actor engages in non-action, indicative of conforming with certain rules and power structures, while also tacitly rejecting it. Such dissonance is often associated with an idea of “doublethink,” or a strategy of survival under oppressive regimes. Pursuing ne talasaj is a way of willingly or unwillingly supporting the power structures and reproducing norms through conformity. The norms of conforming can affect multiple spheres in citizens’ lives and under certain circumstances may become omnipresent.

According to the Croatian online language portal Hrvatski jezični portal, a monolingual dictionary, the expression captures the following behaviour: Do not ask questions and elicit problems that could disrupt the existing condition and irritate the elite authorities (ne postavljaj pitanja i ne pokreći probleme koji bi remetili postojeće stanje i uznemirivali elitu vlasti). The online Serbian slang dictionary, Vukajlija, offers an explanation of the context in which ne talasaj practices may occur: the expression is used to warn someone who wants to change an agreement or break a promise in order to let the person know that this action would be disappointing (“izreka kojom nekome ko očigledno želi da promeni dogovor ili prekrži obećanje stavljamo do znanja da bi takav postupak bio razočaravajući”).

The social norms of ne talasaj might be more diffuse as there are no particular networks or institutions supporting it, as in the case of kumstvo for example. Instead, it can be described as a practical norm of conformity and inactivism. Just as Janteloven in Scandinavia is a set of norms taking many forms in different social settings (Jakobsen 2018: 254-5), ne talasaj can too occur in different social settings. Both codes of conformity expect people to avoid self-expression and activism whilst generally supporting the established norms.

The content analysis of the public discourse on ne talasaj reveals that most newspaper articles link such behaviour to professional contexts. “Whenever an employee complained about something or raised his opinion, he was asked to the office for a ‘conversation in private’”. Often they were told “Don't make waves, you will get fired, the market is full” (Index.hr 2017). The party patronage system and the limitations of the job market in the Western Balkans are behind the ne talasaj compliance that supports the status quo but also creates dissatisfaction with it. Other newspaper articles mentioned ne talasaj in the context of politicians or other whistleblowers who were told to “not make waves”. In the case of the Mayor of Vir, Kristijan Kapović, who was charged with misusing his political position, allegedly on the grounds of his nonconformity, he is quoted as saying: “‘Kapović, be silent, don‘t make waves, be good and you will be good.’ And when I am not silent, I get reported and sentenced” (Slobodna Dalmacija 2019).

Most entries in the context of the practice in blog or magazine entries dealt with ne talasaj as a norm that affects the society negatively, suppresses the freedom of speech and expression while encouraging individual passivity and compliance. The practice is portrayed to prevent people from changing their social circumstances, eventually affecting the private lives of those inactively conforming to power structures as well. Ne talasaj is perceived as a vicious circle within which people are trapped. Such social norms account for the so-called implementation gap and eventual failure of reforms, especially in the Europeanisation process and is considered a socio-cultural barrier for the institutional adaptation of the country (see the case of Croatia in Poljanec-Borić and Pilar 2008).

Other sources discussed ne talasaj as a behavioural pattern from the Communist era that remains intrinsic to politicians (Veljak 2002) and linked it to the existential immobility and the “ambivalence in the normalizing discourse of waiting out the crisis” (Jansen 2014: 82). Hage (2009) takes the concept of “waiting out the crisis” or being “stuck in crisis” further and argues that it represents a form of celebrating the ability to endure a crisis. He argues that “waiting out” is different to “just waiting” – it is a specific form of being passive, while disagreeing at the same time. Its ambivalence means that on the one hand, citizens continue to be subjected to certain social conditions by waiting for them to dissipate (inactivism), on the other hand, they master these conditions the best they can. Hage thus considers this dual character of “waiting out” as a useful “governmental tool that encourages a mode of restraint, self-control and self-government” (2009: 468). This can be linked to the ambivalent nature of ne talasaj - a tool that enables to maintain the status quo.

Academic research confirms negative implications of ne talasaj norms for the implementation of governmental reform or change overall, and links it to the Communist past of the countries in the region. Ne talasaj is expected by those in power and used as a mechanism to threaten members of parties with the loss of their position or employees with redundancy if they speak out against any illegal or unregulated acts. Scholars find cultural features to be a major obstacle to economic and business development, labelling them as cultures of keeping the “status quo” (Arias 2011; Šimić Banović 2016: 14). Maintaining the status quo is exactly what happens when pursuing ne talasaj: “when identifying and explaining the cause of certain national-level failures, this saying seems to best reflect the average behaviour of Croatian citizens” (Šimić Banović 2015: 117). The content analysis of media sources confirms that ne talasaj is pursued in political, business and other professional spheres.

Ne talasaj either embodies a social norm of conforming to social circumstances or compliance with power structures used as a levelling mechanism to tell others to stay put and best not question anything. What can be drawn from the context analysis of the perceptions of this practice is that ne talasaj is perceived as a societal “ill”, preventing change, activism, and individualism, thus reinforcing existing norms and supporting established power structures in both the private or professional sphere. On the other hand, strategies based on the aversion to change do reflect the time-proven effectiveness of dealing with crises, wars and political changes in the region. Ne talasaj practices are context bound and ambivalent that helps serve multiple identities and moralities.

References

Arias, Oscar (2011). ‘Culture matters: The real obstacles to Latin American development’, Foreign Affairs, 90, 1: 2–6

Banović-Simić, Ružica (2015) ‘Cutting the red ribbon but not the red tape: the failure of business environment reform in Croatia’, Post-Communist Economies, 27, 1: 106–128

Banović-Simić, Ružica (2016) ‘Is Culture an Underpinning or Undermining Factor in the Business Environment of the Transitional Countries?’, in Economic Development and Entrepreneurship in Transition Economies, edited by J. Ateljević and J. Trivić, 11–38 (Cham, Springer)

Hage, Ghassan (2009) ‘Waiting out the crisis: on stuckedness and governmentality’, Anthropological Theory, 5, 1: 463–75

Jakobsen, Morten (2018) ‘Janteloven/Jantelagen (Scandinavia)’, in Global Encyclopaedia of Informality, Volume 1: Towards Understanding of Social and Cultural Complexity, edited by A. Ledeneva, A. Bailey, S. Barron, C. Curro and E. Teague, 254–8 (London, UCL Press)

Jansen, Stef (2014) ‘On Not Moving Well Enough: Temporal Reasoning in Sarajevo Yearnings for “Normal Lives”’, Current Anthropology, 55, 9: 74–84

Ledeneva, A. (2018) ‘Introduction: the informal view of the world – key challenges and main findings of the Global Informality Project’, in Global Encyclopaedia of Informality, Volume 1: Towards Understanding of Social and Cultural Complexity, edited by A. Ledeneva, A. Bailey, S. Barron, C. Curro and E. Teague, 1–27 (London, UCL Press)

Poljanec-Borić, Saša and Pilar, Ivo (2008) ‘Transfer of Governance Culture: A Case Study of Socio Cultural Barriers for Institutional Adaptation in Croatia’, Revija za sociologiju, 39, 3: 123–144

Šimić Banović, Ružica (2015) ‘Cutting the red ribbon but not the red tape: the failure of business environment reform in Croatia’, Post-Communist Economies, 27, 1: 106–128

Šimić Banović, Ružica (2016) ‘Is Culture an Underpinning or Undermining Factor in the Business Environment of the Transitional Countries?’, in Economic Development and Entrepreneurship in Transition Economies, edited by J. Ateljević and J. Trivić, 11–38 (Cham, Springer)

Slobodna Dalmacija (2019) ‘Podignuta optužnica protiv načelnika Vira, a opis djela za koje ga terete je, u najmanju ruku, vrlo neobičan: Ako sam kleptoman, onda nisam za USKOK, nego za psihijatriju!’ (translates to ‘An indictment has been filed against the mayor of Vir, and the description of the offences for which he is charged is, to say the least, very unusual: If I am a kleptomaniac, then I am not for USKOK, but for psychiatry), in: https://www.slobodnadalmacija.hr/vijesti/crna-kronika/podignuta-optuznica-protiv-nacelnika-vira-a-opis-djela-za-koje-ga-terete-je-u-najmanju-ruku-vrlo-neobican-ako-sam-kleptoman-onda-nisam-za-uskok-nego-za-psihijatriju-625070.

Veljak, Lino (2002) ‘Zašto je problem globalizacije akademske naravi?’, Habitus, 8, 6: 23–32