A black and white, medium-shot photograph of a Jovana Diković with dark, shoulder-length hair. She is looking toward the camera with a soft, neutral expression. She is wearing dark-rimmed round glasses, a wide-brimmed hat, and a light-colored button-down shirt with thin vertical stripes. A simple necklace with a small pendant is visible. She is leaning against a textured stone or stucco wall, with a sunlit cobblestone sidewalk and the base of a building visible in the background.

14 Leave it to us — what happens when people are left to their own development?

Fields that never stay uncultivated, spontaneous arrangements between neighbours, and state plans that fall apart when they meet reality. What happens when people choose to develop in their own way, following their own pace? In this Zethnopod episode, we talk with economic anthropologist Jovana Diković about her research in rural Serbia. Together we explore how peasants follow their own path in the spirit of «laissez-faire», how endogenous rural development on the ground differs from top-down ideas, and why this perspective matters for today's debates on development policy.

Diković, J. 2025. The Laissez-Faire Peasant: Post-socialist rural development in Serbia. London: UCL Press. https://doi.org/10.14324/111.9781800087637

Malinowski.B. 2014. Freedom and Civilization. Mysore Press