Spatial Justice: Politics of Contested Space in a Post-Yugoslav Region

Across Eastern Europe, commercialization and commodification have fundamentally transformed society’s rural landscapes and urban cityscapes. Valued space that previously belonged to the public, or the commons, is now regarded as private property, no longer available for usage by ‘the people.’ With a Serbia case study, this chapter explains how a grassroots movement in Belgrade organized to resist the commercial development of the riverfront. The author develops the concept of ‘spatial justice,’ as an ethical and political notion, referring to the struggle to prevent the exploitation of space to the detriment of the free use of citizens.