City Space as a Democratic Space? The Case of the Pride Parade in Sarajevo and Belgrade

Abstract

Participatory democratic practices happen as a part of everyday life as the problem of power does not primarily concern sovereignty but our bodies, our existence, our everyday life (Foucault 2012, 167). Therefore, participatory democratic practices must also be spatial, and the rethinking of democratic connections must consider spatial thinking in terms of physical public space as "empty" and open (Hoskyns 2014). On the other side, public spaces are appropriated materially and symbolically (Bourdieu 1991), what leads to the inevitable hierarchization of public spaces, thus giving legitimacy to the exclusion of certain groups. Democratic transition in Eastern and Central Europe, therefore, includes the question of public spaces in urban areas, which directly affect and reflect both architectural and political issues. The tension between the demands of democracy and reality reflects the willingness to include everyone in democratic processes. The Pride Parade insists on the civic model through visibility and activism, and it seems to become more problematic the more democracy is degraded. B&H and Serbia have shown significantly different stages of development since 1992. How this is reflected in the attitudes and practices towards the use of space for expressing resistance and visibility will be shown in the example of the Pride Parade in Belgrade and Sarajevo from the period of the first parades. Public urban space is a place where people of different social and economic classes necessarily meet and confront (Harvey 2006). Collective history is inscribed in public space (Läpple 1991, Klamt 2012), which has significant social effects on the very practices of use.