Approaching Abandonment is a project by Emilia Harle and Natalia-A. Bakula aimed at understanding the hidden aspects of emigration that have been largely ignored in the heated debates of recent years.

The research began in the eastern region of Slavonija in Croatia to trace the reasons behind people’s emigration in the 1990s as well as to capture the current perceptions of those who remain today.

The deliberate decision to shift from a theoretical investigation, with corresponding projects, publications, and approaches, to an empirical one, in which confronting concrete life circumstances applies the previously developed methodology, was made intentionally. The reader should be able to appreciate the significance of the moral and practical implications of capturing people’s lived realities and translating them into creative work.