The representatives of social action in waterfront regeneration: The case of the brownfield site "Belgrade port"

Abstract

Brownfield regeneration is one of the sustainable development mechanisms, and therefore at the peak of popularity in recent decades. This refers to the experience of Western Europe, but the tendency of brownfield regeneration is present in post-socialist countries as well. However, in the transition period multiple actor interests are often impossible to reconcile and that is the main feature of the mentioned mechanism. It is precisely the great number of stakeholders in brownfield regeneration who make the whole process extremely complex and, presumably, collaborative planning takes place. By the discourse analysis of daily press, the primary aim of the paper is to identify the main stakeholders and then to establish their dominant acting forces in the regeneration of the Belgrade waterfront area. The analysis of 28 articles from two daily newspapers Blic and Danas gives us an insight into how the stakeholders speak about the problem, what their interests are and what their level of power is. The analysis shows extreme polarization in stakeholders' attitudes. The research focuses on identification and description of social action representatives, their duties and responsibilities, but also on the overall context in which the problem appears as well as on possible guidelines for further studies of similar cases.