Project

governance; urban management; post-socialist transition; evaluation; urban development; public participation

Lead
La transition postsocialiste a provoqué des changements fondamentaux dans la société, les politiques publiques et l’économie. Elle a par ailleurs déclenché des transformations importantes dans les processus de développement urbain en Serbie. Par conséquent, la nécessité apparaît de règles institutionnelles adaptées à ce nouveau contexte de transition, impliquant des recherches et une réflexion stratégique sur la gouvernance urbaine. Ce projet vise à soutenir une nouvelle approche heuristique des questions urbaines actuelles, mettant en synergie la communauté scientifique, les décideurs et les représentants de la société civile, soit toutes les organisations impliquées dans les processus de gouvernance, de gestion et de planification urbaine. Les effets à long terme visent à influencer les procédures de prises de décision et contrecarrer des normes et des règles institutionnelles insuffisantes et faibles, leur évaluation ainsi qu’un suivi critique des plans et projets mis en œuvre.
Lay summary
Pendant les derniers 20 ans de la transition postsocialiste, la société serbe a souffert de nombreuses difficultés en matière de développement économique, politique et social. Au-delà de règles et procédures défaillantes dans la prise de décisions appropriées, le pays est aussi gravement affecté par la récente crise financière mondiale. En conséquence de quoi, sans une planification du développement urbain appropriée au contexte actuel, les politiques d’aménagement urbain restent inapplicables et sans effet à long terme, dès lors que le cadre institutionnel et le système de gouvernance territoriale et l’absence de participation publique ne permettent pas de répondre aux besoins sociaux prévalant en Serbie, aujourd’hui. Le projet se focalise sur le renforcement des capacités de recherche scientifique, une vision renouvelée des approches de planification urbaine, définissant des méthodes, instruments et outils pour guider un développement durable et résilient de l’expansion urbaine à Belgrade et en Serbie. Afin de renforcer l’efficacité de la gouvernance urbaine et l’exécution des plans urbains, nous nous fonderons également sur les « meilleures pratiques » favorisant un usage novateur des instruments mis en place dans le domaine urbain. Le projet est basé sur l’échange de connaissances et d’expériences existantes. Toutes les activités sont organisées autour des thèmes portant sur : les méthodologies de recherche, la gouvernance, la participation sociale, les processus de prise de décision et l’évaluation de leur mise en œuvre, l’exécution des plans et leur contrôle. Sur la base des travaux de recherche accomplis au cours des 36 mois, le projet va créer une base de données en ligne sur les questions urbaines en Serbie et fournir une liste de recommandations pour améliorer le système actuellement en place.

Direct link to Lay Summary

Last update: 09.06.2015

Lead
The post-socialist transition induced substantial changes in society, public policy, urban economies, and significantly transformed existing urban development processes (UDPs) in Serbia. It increased the significance of political and institutional regulations, as well as the importance of introducing new wave of research, strategic thinking and governance.This project aims to support a gradual building of a new heuristic approach to urban issues in the post-socialist transition context in Serbia, in parallel with the empowerment of scientific community, stakeholders and a set of organizations of civil sector dealing with urban development, governance, urban management, as well as urban planning methods and instruments. Long-term goals are to address biased decision making process, insufficient and weak institutional regulations, provisory evaluation, controlling and monitoring system for plans, policies and projects.
Lay summary
In the last 20 years of post-socialist transition, Serbian society has experienced a range of difficulties in its economic, political and social development. A lack of adequate political regulations, compounded by unbiased decision making procedures and the severe consequences of the recent global financial crisis, indicate that current urban development processes (UDPs) in Serbia embody inefficient and irrelevant institutional and organisational frameworks with regard to strategic thinking, urban governance and management, evaluation, implementation, and monitoring. Urban planning and UDPs are still not adequately adapted, especially concerning urban land policy, the institutional milieu, urban governance, and public participation. This project focuses on research capacity building in terms of improving and modernising urban planning approaches, methods, instruments and tools in order to foster sustainable and resilient urban development in Belgrade and Serbia. Research on ‘best practices’ concerning the mechanisms for an efficient implementation of urban plans and governance will eventually contribute to the improvement of spatial and urban planning in Serbia. While revolving around the exchange and transfer of knowledge and experience, this collaboration will address: urban planning methods and instruments for urban research in a post-socialist transition context; public participation and transparency in decision making, tracing power relations in the real estate market, identifying legal constraints when dealing with the lack of social impact assessment and maladjustment of urban and strategic projects. All activities are categorized in thematic entities according to the systematization of ongoing urban issues in Serbia in terms of urban planning methodologies, public participation, decision making, and urban governance. The project will establish an on-line data base for its results, and will provide an accompanying booklet of recommendations.

Direct link to Lay Summary

Last update: 09.06.2015

Active participation

Self-organised

Self-organised

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During the last 20 years of transition from socialism to capitalism, Serbian society suffered due to major changes (negative trends) in economic, political and social development. The situation in cities is especially complicated due to politically and economically motivated and non-transparent decision making, particularly regarding strategic projects and illegal/informal construction.This bilateral institutional partnership aims to support a gradual building of a new heuristic approach to urban issues in the post-socialist transition context in Serbia, in parallel with the empowerment of scientific community dealing with these topics (urban development, governance, urban management, urban planning methods and instruments), stakeholders and a set of organizations of civil sector. Also, this IP includes exchange and transfer of knowledge, support to institutional and individual research capacities related to urban development in the post-socialist society, as well as research equipment/infrastructure of the IAUS as the leading national institute in the field of urban and regional planning, facing with large challenges, especially regarding the lack of funding.According to our mutual expertise, our collaboration will focus on:•Knowledge transfer in the field of urban planning methods, instruments and tools (aiming at sustainable and resilient urban development, in accord to post-socialist reforms and changes on different territorial and institutional levels); mechanisms for efficient urban planning governance and implementation; defining major criteria for legal constrains in order to deal with maladjustment of urban planning and strategic projects; •Exchange of experiences on new governance model, arrangements and mechanisms for addressing: politically and economically motivated decision making, weak rule of law, manipulations of public opinion, weak evaluation system of plans, policies and projects (including poor and rare monitoring), insufficient institutional regulations, and illegal and irregular land occupation and construction;•Knowledge transfer on enhancing public participation and transparency in urban decision making and institutional regulation, •Establishment, demonstration and promotion of online database for efficient urban plans implementation and governance, as well as to support networking of urban planners from Serbia and Switzerland.Study visits, workshops, trainings, round table, publications and online database will support sharing of relevant information on urban problems and issues in post-socialist transitional societies, as well as useful transfer of knowledge to urban planners in IAUS and Serbia. This will also help in creating the long-term partnership between IAUS and EPFL, and promote cooperation of Swiss and Serbian urban planners (and urban planning students). Transfer of experience, up-to-date methodologies and tools, as well as purchase of research equipment will help increasing IAUS attractiveness and international competitiveness, and support its aim to become a National Focal Point for international cooperation in the field of urban and regional planning.