Commodification of Public Space in Serbia – Capital as an Axiom in the Repurposing of Urban Public Areas: The Case of Serbian Orthodox Church and Investor Urbanism

Vujadinović, Njegoš and Mijić, Emilija and Novaković, Nevena (2025) Commodification of Public Space in Serbia – Capital as an Axiom in the Repurposing of Urban Public Areas: The Case of Serbian Orthodox Church and Investor Urbanism. In: Challenges Facing Religion And The Church In Postmodern Digital Society. Institute of Social Sciences, Belgrade, p. 92. ISBN 978-86-7093-289-0

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Abstract

This paper arises from the authors’ interest in the growing phenomenon of investor urbanism, which has become a prevalent approach to occupying urban public spaces in Serbia over the past decade. Notably, the Serbian Orthodox Church (SOC) increasingly appears to be one of the investors in such projects. The foundational axiom of investor urbanism is the influence of capital, serving as both the means and the end of this type of development, often proceeding without the involvement of broader communities, public policy considerations, or expert consultation throughout the process. Investor urbanism is a phenomenon characteristic of global economic practices driven by a neoliberal logic that prioritizes profit above all else, even to the extent of assimilating spirituality within this late-capitalist cultural milieu. This paper aims to investigate the position of the SOC and how the Church engages with contemporary construction concepts and real estate markets, primarily in New Belgrade – an urban entity developed during the socialist era that has increasingly become a focus of public interest and civic protest against such approaches. The exploitation of public areas for the construction of residential and commercial buildings often occurs at the expense of the wider community and involves the integration of new structures into an already aging and overburdened urban infrastructure without any obligatory investment in improvements.

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