Urban Futures

We kindly invite you to join us for the PRESENTATION OF RESEARCH INSIGHTS within the bilateral project Urban Futures: imagining and activating possibilities in turbulent times (Croatian Science Foundation and the Public Agency for Research and Innovation of the Republic of Slovenia).

The presentation will be held on Tuesday, February 13, 2024, at 1:00 PM at the Library of the Institute of Ethnology and Folklore Research (5th floor), Zagreb, Šubićeva 42.

The project leaders Valentina Gulin Zrnić and Saša Poljak Istenič, as well as project members Jasna Čapo and Mirna Tkalčić Simetić, will speak about the research insights.

This urban ethnological/cultural anthropological project is dedicated to exploring the creation of the future in selected Croatian and Slovenian cities. The syntagm “future-making” refers to a comprehensive understanding of elements connected in imagining, anticipating, and perceiving the future, as well as in the modalities of daily life and engagement expressing a specific relationship to the future. “The future” as a new(er) subject of research in ethnology and cultural anthropology is defined as culturally and contextually relative. Together with perspectives of probabilities and possibilities inherent in the perception of the future, it sets a broad framework for researching multiple urban futures – desired and undesired, official and alternative, supported or resisted, controversial, challenging, invisible, “muted,” or “stolen.”

A three-day workshop (17-19 January, 2024) was held at the Institute of Ethnology and Folklore Research in Zagreb, as part of the Croatian-Slovenian project Urban Futures: Imagining and Activating Possibilities in Unsettled Times.

Through presentations accompanied by discussions, project members presented the results of research conducted in selected Croatian and Slovenian cities. They collaboratively participated in formulating guidelines for shaping public policies in urban areas.

Facilitator Nastja Mulej joined the workshop with the aim of facilitating the evaluation of the successfulness of the project and establishing the foundation for future collaboration among project members, possibly through the establishment of an international Center for Urban Futures Research.

Anna Horolets, Alexandra Schwell and Saša Poljak Istenič published an article titled “The Art of Green Maintenance. Future-Making in Urban Gardening” in the scholarly journal Etnološka tribina 56/43, 2023. The article is a part of a thematic session on urban futures.

Abstract:

Urban gardening plays a major role in how sustainable futures are imagined and envisaged, but the focus on its innovative potential tends to obscure the diverging logics at play. We draw upon ethnographic fieldwork at the community garden Onkraj gradbišča in Ljubljana, which was conceptualized primarily as a social and cultural innovation. Yet, it continuously called for maintenance and care practices in which the organizers and the gardeners had to engage to make it last. We argue that maintenance labor is crucial for sustainable urban future-making practices.

Jasna Čapo published an article titled “Issues and Challenges of Overtourism in the City of Hvar” in the scholarly journal Etnološka tribina 56/43, 2023. The article is a part of a thematic session on urban futures.

Abstract:

Bearing in mind the term “overtourism,” the paper analyzes the perceptions of the local population about the negative impact of tourism in the specific spatial, temporal, demographic, and socio-economic context of the city of Hvar. It demonstrates that the negative effects of tourism in the city bear resemblance to those in other places exposed to overtourism, but also that the local context (size and space of the city, the monoculture of tourism and its seasonality, and the engagement of the entire population in tourism) compound the social and material effects of overtourism in the city and makes it difficult to stop its growth and influence. The analysis is based on ethnographic research and monitoring of social networks.

Katja Hrobat Virloget published an article titled “Un-Silencing Traumatic Memories along the Slovenian-Italian Border. The Case of Psychotherapeutic and Anthropological Workshops” in the scholarly journal Etnološka tribina 56/43, 2023. The article is a part of a thematic session on urban futures.

Abstract:

The article is the author’s reflection on an interdisciplinary collaboration between cultural anthropology and psychotherapy, during which the workshops addressed the dissonant and traumatic memories of the society along the Slovenian-Italian border. It addresses the plurality of voices in the frame of contested and divergent memories, caught in a competition of victimhood. The author argues that the past and the future are inevitably intertwined; by changing the narratives of the past, changes in the present and future can be obtained. In the concrete case study, the question is if, by opening a space where people can listen to each other traumatic and conflict memories, we can have an impact on surpassing the violent conflicts from the past.

Tihana Rubić published an article titled “Transformations, Decline, and (Imagined) Futures of Gojlo and Kutina” in the scholarly journal Etnološka tribina 56/43, 2023. The article is a part of a thematic session on urban futures.

Abstract:

The paper presents and examines two localities – Gojlo and Kutina in Croatia – and their spatial, temporal, material, and social transformations throughout the twentieth century to the present. The two localities are linked geographically and by a “shared fate” – as planned cities/settlements for industrial purposes and the extraction of natural resources. After the depletion of resources, the crisis of raw materials, and the transformations of political and economic systems, these localities both experienced spatial and social stagnation and degradation. Gojlo suffered decay, and Kutina has experienced partial deindustrialization. The research questions focus on the dynamic relationship between space/place, time, and top-down urban planning. Critical analysis invokes, and relies on, the concepts and research fields of the (post)industrial city, industrial monoculture, placemaking, anthropology of the future, multiple temporalities, and an anthropology of optimism.

Nina Vodopivec published an article titled “’Maribor is the Future’. Participation Practices and the Right to the City“ in the scholarly journal Etnološka tribina 56/43, 2023. The article is a part of a thematic session on urban futures.

Abstract:

The article explores futures in the deindustrialized city of Maribor in relation to the right to the city and participatory practices. The future is considered from the present perspective; how it informs and inspires people to act. The focus is on the Initiative for Citywide Assembly, self-organized districts, participatory budgeting, and collaboration between cultural producers and NGOs. The article treats these participatory practices as social processes and learning sites in which the future is not just imagined or aspired to but rather lived and put into practice.

Jaro Veselinovič and Nevena Škrbić Alempijević published an article titled “Future-Making in the European Capitals of Culture. Rijeka and Nova Gorica Compared” in the scholarly journal Etnološka tribina 56/43, 2023. The article is a part of a thematic session on urban futures.

Abstract:

The article deals with the concept of future-making and its European (i.e., EU) dimension in the context of European Capital of Culture projects. The analysis is based on two case studies – Rijeka 2020 and Nova Gorica 2025. The authors focus on ECoC bid books and other strategic documents that give insight into the desired legacy of the event and the (re) positioning of each city on the cultural and political map of Europe through the transposition of relevant European topics into local contexts. They examine the visions of the anticipated urban development that is hoped to occur as a direct consequence of the project’s implementation.

Mirna Tkalčić Simetić published a review of the book “Post-Disaster Recovery. Socio-Anthropological Perspectives on Repair in the journal Narodna umjetnost 60/2, 2023 (ed. Laura Centemeri, Sezin Topçu i J. Peter Burgess, Routledge, Oxon, New York, 2022.).

PDF in Croatian language (pages 299-301)