Jovana Dikovic

Dr. Jovana Dikovic joined CCRS in September 2021, and as of January 2022 acts as head of Sustainable Impact and Inclusive Development. She received her BA in Social anthropology and MA in Political Sciences from the University of Belgrade. Subsequently, she moved to the University of Zurich where she obtained her Ph.D. in Economic Anthropology. She teaches at the University of Zurich as well as the University of St. Gallen and is also a visiting fellow at the University of Pittsburgh. As an economic anthropologist, Dr. Dikovic studies endogenous growth and its impact on state and donor-driven agricultural and development projects and policies in the rural Balkans (Serbia, Kosovo, and Greek-Albanian border). In her prior extensive field research, Dr. Dikovic studied how microeconomics, local cultures, values, and ideas skew the course of the state plans for agriculture and rural development in Serbia, and how they affect the institutionalized ideas of change. At CCRS, Dr. Dikovic investigates the outcomes of development projects in rural Kosovo. In this context, she conducts ethnographic research aiming at detecting crucial obstacles in the sustainable implementation of development projects in agriculture and provides recommendations on how to address these bottlenecks through more inclusive approaches to sustainable development that focus on supporting the local economy.