Local, glocal, entrepreneurial and socio-ecological aspects of the contemporary city

Abstract

This paper, using political science and sociological approach, points to a series of phenomena, processes and problems related to the decentralization of state government, local government, glocal world, entrepreneurial city and urban socio-ecological features in the context of globalization, post-socialist transformation and ecological modernization. It is primarily about the way of managing the city, about urban policy. The power is the central category of each policy, including the local politics - power, social actors and interests in connection with them. Urban processes are governed by different actors - politicians, businessmen, experts, citizens / consumers, NGOs - some of which actually run, while others are subordinated, or resist, which indicates the latent and manifest tensions and conflicts in urban areas. Therefore, the concluding part of the paper points to the phenomenon of entrepreneurial city and its actors involved in the game of power. In order to concretize, some results of recent (2010) socio-ecological research of attitudes of representatives of local government in Serbia are used. Whether and how much a democratic decision-making in urban politics takes place is also one of the questions that are attended to.

Keywords

• decentralization
• democratization
• local
• glocal
• entrepreneurial city
• sustainable city
• post-socialist transformation