for more information Interactive maps of the two cities are available at http://remakinghistory.philopolitics.org/ You can also download the full version of the publication in PDF format at the same link. acknowledgements This research was generously funded by Tandem for Culture - Western Balkan in cooperation with MitOSt and European Robinson, G.M., Engelstoft, S. & Pobric, A. ‘Re- making Sarajevo: Bosnian Nationalism after the Dayton Accord’. Political Geography 20 : 2001. pp 957-980 Light, D. ‘Street names in Bucharest, 1990-1997: exploring the modern historical geographies of post- socialist change’. Journal of Historical Geography 30 , 2004. pp154-172. Đordevic, N. ‘Serbian World — a dangerous idea?, Emerging Europe’2021. (accessed 6th September 2022), https://emerging-europe.com/news/serbian-world-a-dangerous- idea/ ´ Cultural Foundation. references Toponyms are divided and subdivided into categories. people 1 Influential persons in four subgroups: names linked to statehood – presidents, influential politicians, army leaders, kings and nobility, mayors 2 culture-creators and artists – poets, writers, painters, sculptors, architects, persons who have had significant cultural impact, scientists and academics 3 religion – saints, religious orders, priests, bishops, and popes; buildings named after any religious affiliation 4 entrepreneurs geographical features 1 rivers, towns, regions, countries, mountains 2 landmarks – railways stations, markets, river-banks 3 traits or attributes such as narrow, steep, wide, long, hill history 1 historical events, institutions, and historical dates (e.g. May 1st International Labour Day), 2 social movements, armies. There is a separate subgroup for streets named after historical events and intuitions within Federal Yugoslavia (SFRJ), as this period played a crucial role in the creation of the names within the 1990 analysis, and the common political narrative of these two cities. crafts and trades 1 butchers, blacksmiths, millers, weavers Some of the street names could be placed into more than one group. If a writer or culturally important person was also a participant in an important political movement the decision had to be made as to the most important role of the person involved: either in the cultural- artistic field, or in the sphere of statehood. -
Street names, sensitive pointers to the link between political processes and the urban landscape, are tied inevitably to nation building and state formation. Political ownership of the urbanscape through urban nomenclature is especially susceptible to revision, especially in the wake of major power shifts and regime changes. Toponyms are powerful cultural signifiers and vehicles of memory to which political authorities resort to in their bid to symbolically appropriate space by inscribing into the landscape a self-legitimising iconography of power. The large shift from the common Socialist narrative to localised and national ones, is reflected in the new names of the toponyms of both cities. Sarajevo’s 1,425 days under seige between 1992 and1996 coincided with its main wave of street name changes. As the Bosnian Serb army shelled the city, the determinants that had connected it to Yugoslavia disappeared from Sarajevo. Belgrade, on the other hand, was not directly affected by the war and changes to its streets came in stages – during the period of the Yugoslav wars (1991-1996), only a small number of streets were changed because Miloševic insisted on prolonging the illusion of Belgrade as the Yugoslav capital. ´ What is similar in both Sarajevo and Belgrade is how the streets were renamed as a return to a ‘better past’. The meaning of that past differs as much as the history of these two cities, but the principles by which its ‘goodness’ is determined are much the same. Both cities have been flooded with toponyms that refer to personalities and historical determinants important for the construction of the Bosniak and Serb ethnic identity, respectively. Socialism, the labour movement, and the industrialisation which brought economic progress to both Bosnia and Serbia are ultimately rejected, replaced by a mythical golden age of kings and ancient monasteries for Belgrade and traditional Ottoman names for Sarajevo. The return to a mono-ethnic past has reduced the profile of multi-ethnicity in the narratives of public spaces in both cities. As the national territory shrank, the toponyms in the capitals became more and more exclusive. Ethnic minorities were not desirable bearers of public narrative; their discourse and memories needed to be removed. Other minorities did not fare any better. Insisting on ethnicity and creating a single, narrow identity has closed these cities. They both symbolically and spiritually rejected their cosmopolitan settlement and voluntarily turned into a province. We are going to extend this study to the remainder of capital cities of former Yugoslavia and to see how the revisionist patterns occurred in Ljubljana and Zagreb (both cities now in the EU) as well as Podgorica (once Titograd) and Skopje. p
Lejla Odobašic Novo is a Bosnian-Canadian architect licenced by the OAA. She is currently teaching as an Associate Professor at the International Burch University, Department of Architecture in Sarajevo. Her research lies at the intersection of culture and politics, exploring how this junction manifests itself through architecture in contested spaces. Aleksandar Obradovic is a cultural anthropologist and founder of the Philopolitics think tank. He is a non-academic researcher in areas of urban space and political anthropology. His research is focused on the relationship between public space and power, as well as minority narratives that contest mainstream narratives and appropriation of public spaces. ´ ´
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on site review 42: atlas :: being in place
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