Housing estates, as both physical and social environments, impact the lives of residents in diverse ways. Research indicates that multifunctional urban design has positive implications on the quality and frequency of social interaction among residents, directly impacting the social processes within neighbourhood communities. Drawing on interdisciplinary research which integrates both spatial and social aspects, this article explores the relationship between housing estates built within two social-political systems-socialist and post-socialist, and the potentials for social interaction within these two types of neighbourhoods. Additionally, it examines how residential blocks were developed within these different systems, as well as the degree to which attention was given to public spaces and the social aspect of collective living within these urban paradigms. A case study of these two dominant types of housing estates in Novi Sad, Serbia, demonstrates how different socio-political systems produced different spatial features of city neighbourhoods, which mediate social interaction in neighbourhood communities. The findings illustrate the significant relationship between spatial characteristics of housing estates and the social dynamics of neighbourhood communities, with the residential frames mediating, shaping and structuring activities, encounters and various social interactions between residents.
The paper explores the distortion of fundamental postulates regarding the gender category in linguistics by some of the key representatives of scientific, educational, and cultural institutions in Serbia, during the recent public debate on gender-sensitive language. The debate emerged after May 20, 2021, when the National Assembly of the Republic of Serbia adopted the Gender Equality Law, which introduced the mandatory use of gender-sensitive language in administration, education, and media. The Committee for the Standardisation of the Serbian Language strongly opposed this law by misrepresenting knowledge about language and gender. To identify the link between the distortion of knowledge and the sociopolitical consequences of creating epistemic injustice, this paper combines linguistic methods (critical discourse analysis) with ignorance studies. The research findings are related to: a) the concealment and distortion of facts (from general linguistics and the history of the Serbian language); b) ignorance of new knowledge and issues (standardization of gender-related vocabulary; addressing problems in syntax and punctuation); c) the gradation of hurtful language used to spread hate speech and about identities.
This paper examines the spatial politics of childhood through a longitudinal case study of play space transformations at Ada Ciganlija in Belgrade between 2019 and 2025. Grounded in a socio-cultural theoretical framework, the new sociology of childhood, critical urban perspectives, and poststructuralism, this research explores how shifting urban policies, design logics translated into playground design trends, and socio-economic priorities become materialized in public play spaces and shape their pedagogical potential. The study traces three distinct phases in the play space's development, from coexistence of traditional and ecological models, through institutional investment in inclusive design, to the rise of commercialized, adult-managed entertainment structures. Using spatial and temporal analysis, supported by field observations and visual ethnography, the research questions whether public care for children and families is challenged by these transformations. Findings reveal a progressive marginalization of pedagogically valuable and participatory play environments, replaced by profit-driven interventions. The study contributes to critical childhood studies in urban context by highlighting how play spaces convey dominant societal messages and materially shape children's opportunities for autonomy, creativity, and belonging. It argues for reclaiming public play environments as pedagogically meaningful spaces, raising questions about accountability, transparency, and the right to the city in the context of childhood.
Building on the theoretical and empirical link between nationalism and materialism, this paper seeks to justify and explain the constructivism-primordialism dichotomy. The study models materialist value orientation as a predictor of primordial and constructivist nationalism in European societies at both the individual and the collective level. The analysis is limited to European countries in which factor analysis distinguishes between the two aforementioned dimensions of nationalism. Empirically, the study relies on data from the latest wave of the European Values Study (EVS), based on a representative European sample, and applies mixed linear modeling as the main quantitative method. The results indicate that in a subset of European societies (Central and Eastern Europe), nationalism exhibits the two theoretically expected dimensions. The findings show that primordial nationalism is explained by individual-level materialism, collective-level materialism, and their micro-macro interaction. In contrast, constructivist nationalism appears as a weak collective identity, not significantly associated with sociodemographic or macro-level factors. Overall, the results support the argument that different dimensions of nationalism follow divergent logics of emergence and reproduction, and that the socio-economic "climate" selectively shapes those forms of national identification that are more open to institutional framing and political reinterpretation.
One of the most important factors that reflect indicators of teacher self-efficacy for inclusive practice is cooperation inside and outside the school aimed at supporting students with developmental disabilities. The aim of this research is to investigate the differences in the individual components of the self-assessed self-efficacy for the cooperation of teachers considering the fact that they work in schools located in settlements of different sizes. The sample consists of 357 classroom and subject teachers, in the Istrian Region, Croatia. In addition to the calculation of basic statistical parameters, multivariate analysis of variance, Kruskal-Wallis test and discriminant analysis were used in data processing. The results showed that belonging to a group defined by the size of the settlement where the school is located can be statistically significantly predicted based on a set of variables that describe the self-assessment of certain characteristics of self-efficacy for teacher cooperation. The group of teachers working in schools in larger urban areas, unlike those working in schools in less urban areas, have an impact on the inclusion of faculties and universities in the work of the school, writing homework, cooperation between teachers and administrators for the purpose of efficient school functioning, and providing assistance to other teachers to improve their skills in teaching students of different abilities. On the other hand, teachers working in schools in rural areas, unlike those working in schools in more urban areas, have an impact on the size of the school class and on reducing the frequency of unjustified absences of students from school. A function of self-efficacy was appointed for cooperation inside and outside the school, aimed at equalizing the opportunities of all students. The scientific contribution of the research is that determining the latent structure of differences in the area of self-efficacy for cooperation between teachers who work in schools located in settlements of different size categories can serve as a scientifically grounded basis for revision and improvement of the system of professional training teachers in the inclusive
