INNOVATIVE PATHS TOWARD CONFLICT RESOLUTION?
OVERCOMING URBAN FEARS VIA CIRCULAR PRACTICES
Aleksandra Stupar

Triggered by an act of vandalism at the premises of the recently established Belgrade Urban
Oases/Drop in Shelter for the Street Children, the presentation will discuss a problem of contested
public spaces and evolving fears which act both as the conflict drivers and the sparks of/for
innovation. Testing the endurance of recent urban paradigms (sustainable transitions, resilience,
green economy, social equity etc.) these innovations are supposed to address various contextual
imbalances and act as ‘in-between’ urban ecologies shaping new typologies and unconventional
approaches on social, technological and/or environmental level. Therefore, the relationship
between the specific social dynamics of sensitive urban spaces and the conflict-solving (re)actions
based on circularity will be highlighted, along with its impact on community wellbeing.
Based on the De Cauter's stratification of urban fears (2004) - e.g. demographic fear,
dromophobia, economic fear, xenophobia, agoraphobia/political fear and the fear of terrorism, the
presentation provides both the critical assessment of the selected examples of global practice, and
the insight into creative responses to local-specific problems, conceived by the students of the
University of Belgrade - Faculty of Architecture, according to the ideas of the Future design
movement (Saijo, 2020). This approach uses the principle of the seventh-generation decisionmaking from the indigenous communities in the US, as a specific mode of risk management. The
examples will be analysed according to the set of criteria contributing to their actual conflict/fear
mediation and resolution - formal-informal approach, the application of locally-inspired circular
practices, the level of community engagement during and after the implementation, temporarypermanent relief/sustainability, the scale and impact of achieved empowerment.