Balkanization and Global Politics: Remaking Cities and Architecture

Abstract

Ever-increasingly, countries, states and regions are voicing a desire to be autonomous through a process of balkanization. This book explores the historical emergence, interdisciplinary application and current sociospatial reasons why more places are seeking self-governance around the world. The spatialization of balkanization is particularly addressed in terms of destruction and renewal through a detailed sociopolitical interrogation of architecture and the urban, including their changing symbolic and functional forms. The book offers a reworking of the concept of balkanization through a reflective and critical analysis. The particular attention on the city of Belgrade, including the 1990s dissolution of Yugoslavia through specific case study focus of Croatia, Bosnia-Herzegovina and Serbia, provides insightful connections between balkanization, violent remaking and global politics. Against the detailed historical overview and prevailingly negative understanding of balkanization, a more positive instatement of balkanization for purposes of inclusivity and coexistence is also presented. The book will be relevant to academics and students interested in spatial politics. The broad analysis will appeal across disciplines such as Geography, Politics, Architecture and Urban Studies.