Izvorni znanstveni članak
https://doi.org/10.5673/sip.58.1.1
Defense of Public Spaces in the Cases of “We are Keeping our Park“ and “Bring Back the Magnolia“ Initiatives in Zagreb
Anđelina Svirčić Gotovac
orcid.org/0000-0001-9462-0734
; Institut za društvena istraživanja u Zagrebu, Hrvatska
Jelena Zlatar Gamberožić
orcid.org/0000-0002-5835-3744
; Institut za društvena istraživanja u Zagrebu, Hrvatska
Sažetak
In the last few years, there were many examples of fighting for public spaces in Zagreb. In this
paper, two such cases are examined. In the first case, residents of the Savica housing estate
joined in the civil initiative “We are keeping our Park“ and fought for the defense of the existing
park space (green area and playground) because the city authorities supported the building
of a church, which would significantly decrease the park area. Thus, the long-standing efforts
to annul this city autorities’ decision have begun. The second case, of resisting the planned
revitalization of the Meštrović Pavillion on the Square of the Victims of Fascism, caused a
major protest against the revamp and logging of the trees near the Pavillion, especially the
magnolia tree. This brought about the initiative called “Bring back the Magnolia“. The paper
provides discourse analysis regarding these cases, for which digital articles from various
Internet portals covering the topics were used. The analysis revealed a dichotomous situation.
On the one hand there was not enough citizens’ participation in the decision-making process
regarding the planned changes, and on the other, there was a strong resistance of tenants and
citizens, displayed through civil initiatives including protests and various actions. All this led
to the stagnation in adjusting to European urbanistic standards (so called urban sustainability),
particularly its environmental and social dimension. Nevertheless, through the discourse
analysis it can be argued that the civil initiatives, i.e. citizens through their agency, promoted
these values and attempted to convince urban policy makers to apply them, which sometimes
resulted in positive outcomes and in which a new dimension of power relationships between
all actors involved can be observed.
Ključne riječi
We are keeping our Park; Bring back the Magnolia; public spaces; discourse analysis; urban sustainability; Zagreb
Hrčak ID:
237378
URI
Datum izdavanja:
27.4.2020.
Posjeta: 2.430 *