Contesting ethnocratic spatial order: narrative spaces in Skopje

Abstract

This paper employs the concept of narrative spaces to identify the dynamic processes of social production and social construction of space in the city of Skopje, the capital of Macedonia. While power-holders at local and central level persistently seek to divide the territory through symbolic buildings and monuments and other visual displays, many of the citizens of Skopje have found their own ways to protest such divisions. The inspiration for such resistance arises both from the global connections and urban aspirations of a younger generation and from the positive example of conviviality as embodied in the traditions of Skopje’s Old Bazaar. In this paper I hope to show how comprehensive engagement with locality and spatiality has great potential to help understand interethnic relations. (author's abstract)