Common Space in Post–Socialist Housing in Serbia: The Comparison of the Preferences of the Two New Condominium Building Dwellers in the City of Sremska Mitrovica
Common Space in Post–Socialist Housing in Serbia: The Comparison of the Preferences of the Two New Condominium Building Dwellers in the City of Sremska Mitrovica

Summary/Abstract: After the fall of the Berlin Wall, all socialist societies in Europe entered a post-socialist transitional period. Nevertheless, their transit through the period has been different. Due to the Yugoslav crisis in the 1990s, Serbian transition has been both postponed and rough. This state, known as a “blocked transformation”, has prompted many unordinary situations, where some new capitalist phenomena have emerged side by side with the preservation of old, socialist elements. In the case of Serbian housing, the construction of new multi-family housing in the form of a condominium is such an example. The first private investments of this sector began in the early 1990s and boomed during the 2000s. The system of solidarity funds for housing construction, preserved from socialist Yugoslavia, existed up to the early 2000s. Although both types of housing construction have existed simultaneously, they have had different features, most notably the selection of new apartment dwellers. The proposed research aims to understand if this difference between the two mentioned types of new multi-family housing has influenced the newly formed communities in these buildings – how dwellers function as a community? The research “polygon” comprises two buildings in the city of Sremska Mitrovica, Serbia. The first example is the last multi-family building built by solidarity funds; the second one was built at the same time, but it was a private-investment project. The method used in the research is a survey that is shaped to cover the main issues about locally named “community spaces” - common spaces in condominium buildings and around it. The subjects of the survey are the dwellers of both buildings. The results of the survey are expected to present a noticeable difference in the opinions of the respondents. Using this method, this research intends to clarify if different procedures of the selection of dwellers influence the dwellers’ opinions and behaviours towards collective places. This clarification will be the foundation of new recommendations to improve the current state and regulation in condominium housing in Serbia.

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