RESEARCHING AND PLANNING THE RURAL SPACE: THE WORK OF BRANISLAV KOJIĆ

An architect and ruralist, professor and academician, Branislav Kojić made a remarkable contribution to the study of village architecture and villages, their design and planning. His approach was thorough, systematic, comprehensive and interdisciplinary, and resulted in the establishment of a special trend in the study of the village in these regions — “ruralism”. His research had interregional aspect, encompassing space of all the six former republics of the Socialist Republic of Yugoslavia, and with consideration of local and regional specificities. Creativity of Branislav Kojić united the elements of architecture, urbanism, ethnology, human geography, and allowed the filling of gaps in the former knowledge and approaches to rural issues. In order to present Branislav Kojić’s scientific opus and contribution, the paper presents the basic lines of his work, thinking and development of ideas, following the hierarchy of spatial units - from a rural house, a courtyard, through a village atar, a rural settlement, a system of settlements and a rural region, and finally to the villages in the regional spatial frames

Traditional Serbian Countryside and Second-Home Tourism Perspectives

Rural tourism offers opportunity to local communities to oppose the process of rural abandonment. This study assesses the tourism potential of two almost depopulated villages in Serbia, Gostuša (Pirot) and Poganovo (Dimitrovgrad), and identifies their second-home tourism perspectives. They have similar geo-demographic characteristics, but different development patterns. A practical understanding of residents' perception was gained along with identifying the socioeconomic indicators. A comprehensive comparison is made to identify the diversification level of the rural economy in these villages. The study also assesses the rural capital and concludes that it is not realistic to expect fast and sustainable tourism development in these peripheral rural areas. Finally, the study extracts the factors of influence and predicts trends of the diversification process and second-home tourism expansion in rural areas of Balkan Mt.This paper is the result of the project of inter-academia cooperation of the Academy of Sciences and Arts of the Republic of North Macedonia (MANU) and the Serbian academy of sciences and arts (SANU) “Evaluation of preconditions for tourism activities in rural depopulated areas: Comparative study between Macedonia and Serbia" (07-1521/1)

Detection of the Seasonally Activated Rural Areas

Rural areas have been usually observed through agriculture; however, today, it is broadened with various activities. In Serbia, it has been characterized by unbalanced development, which has led to a declining vitality and depopulation. The main goal of this research is detection of seasonally activated rural areas in Serbia, expressed through the population fluctuation, temporary settlement, or occasional use of residential and economic facilities, and identification of spatial patterns of seasonal use. This research applied an innovative proxy—nighttime lights (NTL)—as a complementary tool to statistical analyses, which are conducted in the GIS environment. The calculation encompassed two seasonality coefficients: one based on the NTL and the second based on statistical data on tourist turnover. The spatial frame applies settlement level and micro level (pixels), while temporal includes monthly values for the period 2015–2019. The obtained results highlight tourist activity as the main cause of seasonal activation of rural areas. The largest seasonal fluctuations were registered in mountain areas and spa resorts. For mountain areas, the highest seasonality is in the winter months (peak—January/February), and lowest is in the summer season. The seasonal character of spa centers indicates the similar trend, generally less pronounced (peak—January), however, with higher seasonality during the summer

Changes in spatial-functional development of the municipality of Inđija (Serbia)

In the municipality of Inđija the influences are very closely connected between the two most populated and economically most important cities in Serbia: Belgrade and Novi Sad. The benefit that is expressed in the position of the municipality has reflected the development of settlements, their population strengthening, diversification of activities and functional transformation. Changes in functional characteristics were analysed for 1971 and 2002, with reference to the last population census in 2011. Functions of labour in the municipality were recognized in terms of employment and distribution by activities at the municipal level and in terms of delimitation of labour centres on the basis of the daily mobility of the active population who carries interest at the settlement level. The observed trends can serve as a basis for determining potential routes of the spatial-functional development of settlements and municipality as a whole in future. [Projekat Ministarstva nauke Republike Srbije, br. III 47007

Traditional Serbian Countryside and Second-Home Tourism Perspectives

Rural tourism offers opportunity to local communities to oppose the process of rural abandonment. This study assesses the tourism potential of two almost depopulated villages in Serbia, Gostuša (Pirot) and Poganovo (Dimitrovgrad), and identifies their second-home tourism perspectives. They have similar geo-demographic characteristics, but different development patterns. A practical understanding of residents’ perception was gained along with identifying the socio-economic indicators. A comprehensive comparison is made to identify the diversification level of the rural economy in these villages. The study also assesses the rural capital and concludes that it is not realistic to expect fast and sustainable tourism development in these peripheral rural areas. Finally, the study extracts the factors of influence and predicts trends of the diversification process and second-home tourism expansion in rural areas of Balkan Mt

Specifics of rural areas of Serbia from the aspects of regional development

The territory of Republic of Serbia is characterized by considerable socio-economic and demographic disproportions, which are result of inadequate legislations of regional development. Regional differences can be ascribed to the relations: north-south, Belgrade agglomeration – the rest of Serbia, centre-periphery, and specially dichotomy between village and city. The consequence of established regional structure led to the neglect of Serbian village, which is experiencing structural changes in spiritual, psychological and technological sphere. Serbian villages represent a traditional undeveloped area. This paper emphasis problems arising from historical neglect of the Serbian village, which primarily concern the rapid abandonment of agriculture and process of deagrarization, and continuing depopulation and demographic erosion of rural areas

Small Towns in Serbia – The “Bridge” Between the Urban and the Rural

The study presented in this paper deals with the definition and role of small towns in the spatial development of the Republic of Serbia. An analysis of the profiles of small towns was performed and they were compared based on their spatial and population characteristics. The aim of this study is to determine the role of small towns in the development of settlement networks and the balanced population development of a country as a whole by identifying their specific features and establishing a ranking of their importance in local and regional contexts