Identity Struggle in Post-Socialist City: Re-Imagineering Belgrade, Remodelling Skopje
Identity Struggle in Post-Socialist City: Re-Imagineering Belgrade, Remodelling Skopje

Author(s): Nebojša Čamprag
Subject(s): Architecture, Recent History (1900 till today), Policy, planning, forecast and speculation, Rural and urban sociology, Politics and Identity, Identity of Collectives
Published by: Transnational Press London
Keywords: Belgrade; Skopje; Post-Socialist city; identity; urban megaprojects;
Summary/Abstract: More than two decades after the collapse of the communist system, most of the countries of the Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) have completed their transition to market-oriented democratic societies. CEE countries have generally shown diverse rates within the process of post-socialist transition, in addition to them not following the same dynamics observed during the forceful imposition of the socialist system after the World War II . Coupled with profound political and economic reforms, the transition process has also influenced the means and dynamics of spatial transformations in the region. Amongst the most prominent cases highlighting these issues are the successor states of the former Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (SFRY), which are further challenged by the particularly complex socio-political issues. These independent nation states have for decades been under the influence of socialist planning and modernist functionalism that fundamentally transcended national boundaries and local specificities. Thus, the complex post-conflict recovery process driven by a neoliberal agenda is one of the last remaining common characteristics amongst these countries.

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