History, Memory and Everyday Environmentalism. The Case of New Belgrade

Abstract

The authors study experiences of the urban environment in New Belgrade and argue for an understanding of how environmental movements were mobilised and mediated by urban environments. In particular, they focus on the perceptions that have emerged through historical processes of state-driven urban development and urban appropriation by the population when the state retreated. Today, future visions of the city-to-be intersect with the lived reality of contradictions between memory, the production of public space, and its marketisation. Thus by engaging with memories of the production of the urban environment, the difficulties faced in attempts at redefining environmental relations within the city are highlighted and a broader sense of what can constitute an environmental movement is achieved.