Between September 30 and October 3, the conference “Contested Urban Policy: Breeding Concrete Utopias” was held at the Technical University of Berlin, organized by the AESOP Planning/Conflict thematic group.
Two PerspectLab researchers took part, presenting their work on urban mobilization and prefigurative practices:
- Branko Miloševićpresented “Concrete utopia in motion: Critical Mass as a prefigurative action for just urban mobility”, exploring how Critical Mass rides act as forms of collective, embodied critique of urban mobility injustice. By reclaiming city streets for cyclists, these rides momentarily suspend the dominance of car traffic and enact alternative, more democratic and sustainable urban futures.
- Sara Nikolić(in co-authorship with Maria Minić, Kingston University London) presented “Zborovi as political infrastructure: grassroots mobilisation in New Belgrade”. Their research examines informal neighbourhood assemblies (zborovi) as insurgent urban practices emerging in the wake of recent protests in Serbia. Focusing on New Belgrade’s large housing estates, it explores how these assemblies generate new forms of collective agency and political imagination amid widespread disillusionment with formal institutions.
Participation in the conference offered an important opportunity to exchange perspectives on urban struggles, spatial justice, and practices of resistance in cities.