Rebuilding post-communist city identity: The case of Novi Pazar, Serbia

Abstract

In line with contemporary urban policy to build a competitive city identity, this article deals with the post-communist identity of Novi Pazar, a medium-sized city in southwestern Serbia. Research attention is centred on building urban identity through the dynamic interaction between actors and socio-spatial structures. Following Bourdieu’s notion of habitus, the concept of a city’s habitus is employed as well as Lefebvre’s concept of the social production of space. Special focus is placed on the challenges that post-communist cities face in re-establishing their identity following the former promotion of the “communist (industrial) city” and its subsequent decline. The analysis is based on a survey of residents of Novi Pazar (n = 299) and interviews with experts employed in local government and other local institutions/organizations (n = 14), as well as content analysis of the city’s official website. Novi Pazar is a city with a potentially strong identity but also with considerable structural constraints that block the local agency needed to activate the city’s identity potential.