Symbolic functions of the urban Belgrade landscape components – children’s perspective

Abstract

This anthropological paper views the urban landscape of Belgrade as a system of signs, consequently discussing the functional aspects of those urban landscape components, which children attributed the status of symbols. In a methodological sense, the work is based on the results of two field surveys – the first one, conducted in March 2021 in the Primary School “Kneginja Milica” in New Belgrade, and the second one, from November 2022, which increased the representativeness of the sample, raised the age limit of the respondents, and expanded the territorial coverage of the home city of the children who participated in the research – providing collectively a sample of 70 children aged 7–14. The aim of the work is to provide an input to the (so far rare) contributions at the intersection of two subdisciplines – urban anthropology and anthropology of children/ childhood, as well as to encourage further research in this area.

Keywords

• children
• belgrade
• urban landscape
• symbols
• symbolic function