Image of the city between consensus and tension: six Serbian cases

Abstract

Starting from the concept of urban identity, defined as a set of unique features characterizing a city/town that set it apart from others and ensure its continuous recognizability, the paper takes the example of six urban centers in Serbia (Kragujevac, Sabac, Uzice, Novi Pazar, Sombor and Zrenjanin) to examine the degree of consensus or divergence concerning these identities. Three dimensions i.e three kinds of tension that can arise within, or in relation to, the established image of the locality are singled out: 1) Crystallization: is a given urban identity clearly embodied in a single symbol, and how coherent are the meanings of the constituent symbolic elements? 2) Contention: is the city image disputed among various social groups within its population? 3) Comparisons: how do these urban identities relate to other urban centers and their respective identities? The analysis is based on quantitative and qualitative data collected during 2013 and 2014 within the project" Characteristics of Territorial Capital in Serbia" of the Institute for Sociological Research, Faculty of Philosophy, Belgrade.