Can futures be assembled out of ruins? This article engages this question through an ethnographic account of a workers’ struggle in northeastern Bosnia‐Herzegovina to restart production in a bankrupted factory almost destroyed by privatization. From 2011 through 2015, workers of Dita organized to challenge liquidation of the factory assets. Their struggle resulted in an unprecedented victory when production was restarted in 2015 and the factory reprivatized in 2017. Workers had to carry out their struggle amidst two opposing pulls: the need to draw attention to the processes of destruction that formed part of postwar privatization, and to simultaneously argue for the factory's continued value and viability. The analysis explores the openings and risks created by the ongoing anthropological debates on the centrality of matter—and especially ruins—to social life at large. It argues that where we locate potential and how we name embattled matter is not merely a theoretical but also a political question.

中文翻译：

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当所有固体都没有融化到空气中时：波斯尼亚洗涤剂工厂的劳动，政治和物质

可以从废墟中组装期货吗？本文通过民族志阐述波斯尼亚和黑塞哥维那东北部工人为恢复几乎被私有化摧毁的破产工厂中的生产而进行的斗争的民族志记载，从而解决了这个问题。从2011年到2015年，Dita的工人组织起来挑战工厂资产的清算。他们的斗争取得了空前的胜利，2015年生产重新开始，工厂于2017年私有化。工人不得不在两个对立的拉动下进行斗争：需要引起人们注意战后私有化的破坏过程，以及同时为工厂的持续价值和生存能力辩护。该分析探讨了有关物质（尤其是废墟）对整个社会生活的中心性的人类学辩论的持续存在和开放所带来的风险。它认为，我们在哪里找到潜能以及如何为四面楚歌的事物命名不仅是一个理论问题，而且也是一个政治问题。