October 6, 2022 at 18:00
Topic: History of multiculturalism in Belgrade through places housing
Abstract
The urban fabric is shaped by the actions of a diverse range of actors, creating various forms, structures and cityscapes. Using the case of Belgrade, the lecture focuses on urban fabric and features of housing distribution that provide the framework to articulate the complexity of cities’ social, cultural and ethnic mixture from a historical perspective.
Until the end of the 19th century, the cities in Serbia consisted of mahallas – residential parts of urban formations organized on a religious and ethnic basis – inherited from Ottoman rule. Turkish, Serbian, Jewish, Greek, Roma and other mahallas comprised the structure of cities. Europeanization and modernization of Serbian society also brought transformation of cities, dismantling mahallas formation.
Rapid urbanization during the first half of the 20th century and the fast growth of the city’s population were particularly intense in the capital. Urban growth affected both the social and the physical shape of the city. Much of the migration from rural areas to urban centres was toward Belgrade, where masses arrived, primarily poor people, and impoverished housing covered a large part of the city. At the same time, new inhabitants came from around the country and abroad, with varying cultures, beliefs, languages, lifestyles and behavioural patterns, and formed a cityscape that became the co-existence of differences.
About the lecturer
Dr Zlata Vuksanović-Macura je arhitekta-urbanista i viši naučni saradnik u Geografskom institutu „Jovan Cvijić“ SANU. Njen naučni i profesionalni rad usmeren je na oblasti urbane istorije, socijalnog stanovanja, neformalne izgradnje, stanovanja i naselja Roma. Među publikovanim radovima nalaze se i nagrađivane monografije: Stanovanje i naselja Roma u jugoistočnoj Evropi, sa Vladimirom Macurom (2006), Život na ivici: stanovanje sirotinje u Beogradu 1919−1941 (2012) i Holistički pristup socijalnom stanovanju, sa timom UNOPS-a (2021).
