Public engagement under authoritarian entrepreneurialism: the Belgrade Waterfront project

Perić, Ana

doi:10.1080/17535069.2019.1670469

Cited by 30 publications

(17 citation statements)

References 13 publications

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“…However, this power of national bodies is distorted when exposed to international influence: the Serbian government is far inferior to the UAE government, as is the Greek prime minister to the Lamda international consortium. Mechanisms such as the 'authoritarian entrepreneurialism' in the case of BW (Peric 2020a) and the 'capital urbanisation' of Hellinikon (Komninos 2014) indicate the withdrawal of a state from the protection of social values using space as a source of speculative economic growth. Moreover, contested democracies suffering from an economic downturn are incapable to provide a room for bottomup deliberation by the authorities.…”

Section: Discussion: the 'Iron-law Of Megaprojects' In Fragile Societiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…However, transforming these conditions requires a variety of social, political and economic changes that go far beyond what plans can achieve. Some basic recommendations for reducing the negative externalities of megaproject development are as follows (Peric 2020a;Grubbauer and Camprag 2019;Zekovic et al 2018):…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The transition of Serbia towards neoliberal society is slow and full of various obstacles. The political dictatorship ended in 2000, however, a political culture based on rudimentary pluralism, together with a low level of administrative and financial decentralization (Peric 2020a), makes the Serbian society a 'proto-democracy' even today (Vujosevic 2010). Moreover, the lack of political and institutional reforms, as well as adequate strategy, measures, and mechanisms towards a market economy has led to a chaotic situation in which only Serbian and foreign oligarchs have been able to assert their interests (Nedovic-Budic et al 2012).…”

Section: The Balkans' Urban Megaprojects: Cases From Serbia and Greecementioning

confidence: 99%

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Squandering the territorial capital in the Balkans? Urban megaprojects between global trends and local incentives

Perić

D'hondt²

2020

Urban Des Int

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Throughout its history, but also squeezed between the current challenges of globalisation and sovereignty, the Balkans has been confronted with a number of different political, economic, environmental, and cultural problems. Such a complex social framework inevitably implies spatial degradation, not only in terms of the urban forms as the final planning product, but also in terms of the nature of the planning process and urban governance. Notably, we assume that territorial capital in the Balkans is under serious threat due to the abuse of legal procedures, the neglect of the public interest and the politicisation of planning. To elucidate this, we focus on the megaprojects Belgrade Waterfront (Belgrade) and Hellinikon (Athens) as examples of urban development that require exceptional conditions such as special regulations, additional funding, long-term timeframes, and ad hoc actor networks. Against the conceptual background of multi-level governance and based on in-depth case studies, we examine the nature of vertical cooperation between authorities at different levels (from supranational to local), horizontal cooperation amongst different stakeholders, and the role of planning professionals who are seen as facilitators in this process. Finally, we point out to the most important conditions that enable a democratic social, political and professional framework for urban megaprojects.

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Section: Discussion: the 'Iron-law Of Megaprojects' In Fragile Societiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: The Balkans' Urban Megaprojects: Cases From Serbia and Greecementioning

confidence: 99%

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Squandering the territorial capital in the Balkans? Urban megaprojects between global trends and local incentives

Perić

D'hondt²

2020

Urban Des Int

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“…Therefore, illegal strategies of urban development are flourishing [108]. Officially, Belgrade Waterfront project is not illegal, because its construction is legitimized by lex specialis [109,110] which implemented significant changes in in existing planning and legal documents [16]. Such change of planning and legal documents represents obvious examples of the top-down influence of urban development.…”

Section: General Outcomesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Culture-Led Urban Development vs. Capital-Led Colonization of Urban Space: Savamala—End of Story?

Jocić

2020

Urban Science

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The city quarter of Savamala, as an integral part of Belgrade, has had a very turbulent development path during the last two centuries. This path included several ups and downs, and culminated in tension over the last decade. Savamala fell into silent oblivion in the 20th century, but succeeded in re-emerging into the focus of the public and interest groups, mainly due to the cultural milieu that developed in this area at the beginning of the 21st century. The cultural vibes of the city quarter attracted various urban actors, who created a new image of Savamala. Eventually, cultural functions started to fade; however, after several years and through vague political decisions, Savamala became the part of the largest construction site in Belgrade, the Belgrade Waterfront. This article highlights the development of Savamala in the 2010s—from a forgotten city quarter to a rising cultural quarter and finally to the ’future centre of the city’. This analysis shows the participation of different stakeholders at different stages of development (their influence, power levels, and the mechanisms they used), as well as the footprints that urban development left in the quarter.

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“…This particularly refers to the cities of non-EU Balkan countries that have taken a different transitional path, lagging behind the rest of the region not just economically, with Serbia standing out in its distinctiveness. As regards the urban regeneration projects in Serbian cities, academic attention has been paid to Belgrade, mainly in the development of Belgrade Waterfront involving a wholesale demolition [41][42][43][44]. Only several researches dealt with this topic on the lower level of urban hierarchy, yet focusing on the preservation-based regeneration of the old city core [45][46][47].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Demolition-Based Urban Regeneration from a Post-Socialist Perspective: Case Study of a Neighborhood in Novi Sad, Serbia

2021

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Although a growing body of literature examines the post-socialist European context of urban regeneration, studies on the demolition-based approaches are relatively scarce. Moreover, the regeneration policies of cities in non-EU Balkan countries with a distinctive transitional path remain largely unexplored. The paper contributes to filling these voids by investigating a specific demolition-based urban regeneration strategy named permanent reconstruction, which has been launched in Novi Sad, Serbia’s second largest city, and applied to low-density neighborhoods with a derelict housing stock, being seen as a tool for achieving sustainable urban development. The specific research aims are to explain the origin of this strategy; analyze the institutional and planning framework, mechanisms, and dynamics of the regeneration process through a case study; and assess its outcomes based on a mixed methodology. The main research objective is to identify the issues of a post-socialist entrepreneurial urban governance, primarily deriving from Serbia’s distorted transition, which hampered the development of a strategic, integrated, and locale-conscious approach. The findings suggest that Novi Sad and other Serbian cities necessitate socially responsible and context-perceptive regeneration that would produce sustainable regeneration projects. The authors propose the means for redefining them, emphasizing the responsibilities of the public sector and the significance of involving the local community in the planning and decision-making process.

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Public engagement under authoritarian entrepreneurialism: the Belgrade Waterfront project

Cited by 30 publications

References 13 publications

Squandering the territorial capital in the Balkans? Urban megaprojects between global trends and local incentives

Squandering the territorial capital in the Balkans? Urban megaprojects between global trends and local incentives

Culture-Led Urban Development vs. Capital-Led Colonization of Urban Space: Savamala—End of Story?

Demolition-Based Urban Regeneration from a Post-Socialist Perspective: Case Study of a Neighborhood in Novi Sad, Serbia

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