Residential segregation in a radically changing urban context: experiences from Belgrade

ABSTRACT

This article examines the historical perspective of residential segregation in Belgrade and addresses the contextual factors responsible for the dynamics of this segregation. The article considers the decline in social status from the centre to the periphery as the main feature of citywide segregation in Belgrade, along with perpetuated peripheral informality. It also examines the impact of large-scale socialist estates, which were intended to contribute to an egalitarian society and counteract residential segregation. To examine the long-term patterns of residential segregation in Belgrade, we use a combination of sources and research approaches, due to the incomparability and lack of statistical data. Recent changes in segregation patterns during the first two decades of the post-socialist period were additionally analysed at the census-unit level, using data on the education of the population as a proxy for their social status.

KEYWORDS:

• Residential segregation
• housing
• informality
• gentrification
• Belgrade

Acknowledgments

We specially thank Ljiljana Đorđević (SORS) for her help with data collection, Zlata Vuksanović-Macura for her valuable insights on socioeconomic segregation in interwar Belgrade, and Hanneke Friedl for proofreading this article.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 The year 1929 was chosen for representing social stratification in Belgrade for two main reasons. First, legislatively, the city boundaries were defined for the first time, which was anticipated as the necessary measure to regulate and prevent informal housing practices and provide more efficient and rapid expropriation for public purposes (Gašić 2010). Second, this year represents the end of the decade marked by the largest population increase in the history of Belgrade, when the population doubled from 112,000 inhabitants in 1921 to 226,000 inhabitants in 1929 (Bogavac 1991).

2 The data was collected for the territory of the Master Plan of Belgrade 2021 that encompasses the proper area of the city (Urbanistički zavod Beograda 2003). With an area of 778.5 km², the territory of the Master Plan of Belgrade 2021 is nine times larger than the territory of the Municipality of Belgrade in 1929.

3 CTs are the smallest spatial units covered by the census in both 1991 and 2011, which include relatively homogeneous built structures. On average, they have about 3,000 inhabitants, although the population size varies considerably (Statistical Office of the Republic of Serbia 2022). According to the 2011 Census, about 5% of CTs had more than 10,000 residents, while the largest CT had more than 20,000 residents. Several CTs that have negligible residential function with fewer than 50 inhabitants were excluded from the analysis. In addition, several other CTs had to be merged in 2011 in order to coincide spatially with the 1991 delineation.

4 We found a robust positive correlation between the share of university-educated and high-order occupational groups (ISCO categories: managers; professionals) (r ≥ 0.98) and primary and less-educated and low-order occupational groups (service and sales workers; workers in crafts and related trades; plant and machine operators and assemblers; elementary occupations) (r ≥ 0.91), as well as a negative correlation between the share of high-order occupational groups and primary and less-educated (r ≥ −0.96), and between the low-order occupational groups and the university-educated (r ≥ −0.92). Correlation tests were performed at the CT level for 2011 census data. Similar results, which can be made available upon request, were obtained for the correlation between education and occupational groups for the 1991 census data.

5 After the devastation of the First World War, when one third of all apartments were destroyed, there were only 15,000 apartments in Belgrade. The huge population influx in the interwar period was followed by the construction of 36,000 new apartments, almost a third of which were illegal (1938) (Vuksanović-Macura 2018). According to the 2011 census, there were about 570,000 apartments in total in the Master Plan of Belgrade 2021, of which 358,000 were built during socialism (1946–1991) and 155,000 in the post-socialist period (1991–2011) (Statistical Office of the Republic of Serbia 2022).

6 Mapping of informal settlements is based on Master Plan of Belgrade 2021 (UZB 2003).

Additional information

Funding

The work was supported by the Ministry of Science, Technological Development and Innovation of the Republic of Serbia (Contract number 451-03-47/2023-01/200091).