The project “Experiences of Cultural Centralization in Serbia” was carried out within the program “Culture for Democracy”, financially supported by the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) and coordinated by the Heartefact Fund.
The aim of the project was to identify territorial, financial, educational, and psychological barriers affecting citizens’ cultural participation across Serbia. What sets this study apart is its parallel analysis of three key aspects: cultural supply (via mapping the territorial distribution of cultural institutions and organizations), cultural participation (cultural needs, habits, and tastes), and decentralization efforts led by the Ministry of Culture.
This comprehensive approach provides a holistic understanding of the problem of cultural centralization in Serbia – its causes, consequences, and potential strategies for overcoming (or at least mitigating) them.
The research activities took place from March to December 2022. During July and August 2022, a standardized survey was conducted on a nationally representative, multi-stage stratified random sample of Serbian citizens aged 18 to 80. The survey consisted of 45 questions and was conducted face-to-face using tablet devices (TAPI), with a total of 1,026 respondents.
From October to November 2022, 28 semi-structured interviews were conducted with interlocutors from 20 cities and municipalities across Serbia, including: Babušnica, Bor, Kikinda, Kladovo, Kragujevac, Kruševac, Lebane, Leskovac, Mladenovac, Niš, Novi Pazar, Novi Sad, Pirot, Požega, Subotica, Užice, Vranje, Zaječar, Zemun, and Zrenjanin. A purposive sample and snowball sampling technique were used to recruit participants for this qualitative segment.
Simultaneously, desk research was conducted throughout the project. This included the analysis of theoretical texts on cultural decentralization, and previous studies on Serbia’s cultural infrastructure, primarily conducted by the Institute for the Study of Cultural Development—such as “Cultural Resources of Districts in Serbia” and “Cultural Resources of Cities in Serbia”. Additional resources included the list of cultural institutions, concert halls, and exhibition spaces developed within the “E-culture” project, as well as the electronic map of cultural institutions and organizations in Serbia.
The project also examined three programs initiated by the Ministry of Culture and Information (between 2010 and 2022) aimed at promoting cultural decentralization in Serbia: Srbija u Srbiji (Serbia in Serbia), Gradovi u fokusu (Cities in Focus), Prestonica kulture Srbije (Cultural Capital of Serbia) – a newly established initiative.
The study is currently in preparation and will be published in fall 2025. Upon publication, the SPSS dataset with survey results will be made available to domestic and international researchers and cultural policy makers on the website of the Centre for Empirical Cultural Studies of South-East Europe.