"Tapija and the Politics of Communal Care"

This dissertation explores the contemporary movements, processes, and experiences of neoliberal dispossession in Pula, Croatia, focusing on the city's growing economic dependency on tourism. Central to this study is the local phenomenon of tapija, a term that describes pervasive feelings of melancholy and boredom ingrained in the city's fabric. The dissertation investigates the question, “What does tapija as a feeling do?” and argues that tapija is not merely a reflection of apathy or inertia but a complex and multifaceted sensation. Drawing on Ann Cvetkovich’s (2012) concept of depression as a public feeling, the study examines how tapija can be understood as a way to engage with negative emotions as part of daily practice, cultural production, and political activism.

The dissertation also reflects on how Pula's increasing touristification parallels processes of deterritorialization, where tourism acts as a force of dispossession, affecting the city's sense of place, livelihood, and stability. Using Laurence Ralph’s (2014) concept of social injury, the study considers how the wounds of social change manifest not physically but through changes in city space, heritage, and infrastructure. The work highlights how the experience and expression of tapija represent individual and collective responses to these socio-economic pressures, offering glimpses of concern and care for the community. Through examples such as complaints, small talk, graffiti, and walking paths, the dissertation demonstrates how locals inscribe and re-inscribe their connection to place, creating informal spaces to resist and navigate the injurious forces of tourism and economic change.