Paper long abstract:

In my proposal of communication I present an ongoing ethnographic research I am carrying out in Sarajevo. After a brief exposition of the actual situation in the Bosnian capital city, where a special stress will be put on the political economy of the urban space management by institutional and private actors, I'll focus on the theoretical approach that supports my research: this doesn't take into account the consequences per se of the recent war on urban fabric, social relationships and images of the city, but the transition from the socialist period to the current phase of opening up to global market and culture, in the specific case of a city recovering from war. In line with other scholars of post-socialism, I'll explain why I consider the specific social relationships which spread out in the city and the different uses of the urban space as valid indicators for the analysis of such a transition and the understanding of which new model of city is increasingly dominant.