Planning Narratives and Informal Realities in Sarajevo

Abstract

In the post-Fordist paradigm shift, urban competitiveness and positioning within the global city hierarchy have become crucial criteria for successful urban development. As a result, strategies of urban representation have become the main focus of entrepreneurial city governments, with contemporary representations such as creative districts, iconic architectural landmarks, and globalised commercial and leisure centres often taking symbolic primacy. This investigation reflects on the tension between appropriation and domination in Sarajevo, where informal settlements built on the hilly periphery, mainly by war migrants and refugees, have gained strong visual presence in the city’s image and become a symbol of space-appropriation processes. Drawing parallels with urbanisation patterns in Latin American cities such as São Paulo and Caracas, the paper highlights how informal settlements are systematically excluded from development and upgrading plans. By analysing how these self-generated realities contrast with official planning narratives, it demonstrates how urban governments fail to integrate processes of appropriation and their resulting symbols into representational strategies, even when they strongly shape the urban image.