It has become commonplace for representatives of capital to eradicate social and public infrastructure under any pretext, only to build infrastructure for endless accumulation on top of it. While this is often discussed in terms of gentrification, it should be viewed as a form of urban necrocapitalism within a broader context. Ana Vilenica, investigating the case of Serbia, coined the term deadly urbanism to describe the killing of cities as a mode of creative destruction, constructing cities that kill.
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At 11:52 a.m. on November 1, 2024, a large section of the concrete canopy at the main train station in Novi Sad collapsed, killing sixteen people and injuring dozens more. A consortium of Chinese companies had renovated the Novi Sad railway station. Serbian Railways Infrastructure was the investor, and the project was financed through a loan from China and contributions from the government of Serbia as part of the Budapest-Belgrade railway enterprise. According to media reports, a total of 65 million euros had been invested in the Novi Sad railway station, with 16 million euros specifically allocated for the building itself. For political reasons, the station was ceremonially opened twice: once before the April 2022 elections and again in July 2024, just a few months before the tragedy. The contract governing these reconstruction works has not been made public yet. The Ministry of Construction has declined to release the agreement, citing the refusal of the partners in China to permit disclosure. In her December 2024 statement to the prosecutor, the acting director of Serbian Railways Infrastructurestated that the responsible minister had insisted on personally overseeing all railway infrastructure projects. The minister claimed that this had been agreed upon directly with the president.
The deathscapes of comprador authoritarian urban matters
It has already been shown that Serbia exhibits clear elements of state capture, particularly in its urban planning sector, largely under the control of the ruling SNS party. This reflects a form of comprador authoritarianism, where political and economic power is concentrated in the hands of a ruling elite that prioritizes the interests of foreign investors for their personal gain. The party has captured all institutions connected to urban planning and construction, forcing them to function as capital extraction machines, serving the interests of political and economic elites. A special dimension of this system is that party membership has become a condition for employment in the public sector, and party-affiliated managers are routinely appointed to key decision-making positions, ensuring that political loyalty overrides expertise. Similar to other public institutions, those responsible for urban planning operate with minimal oversight. This enables party-affiliated actors to exert an outsized influence over the cityscape.
In September 2025, under the preasure of protests and blockades, the Serbian public prosecutor filed formal indictments against thirteen individuals, including one ex-minister. Among other things, they are accused of enabling the opening witghout proper documentation. They are also accused of failing to issue orders for inspections, failing to assess the building’s suitability for reconstruction during the design phase, and neglecting to require a structural condition assessment due to the building’s age. Independent media outlets have extensively reported on the political and financial networks surrounding the project, revealing a pattern of cronyism, rushed deadlines, and disregard for public safety. Nevertheless, the November 1 mass murder remains shrouded in secrecy, and no one has been charged.
Violence and fear
Deadly urbanism refers to a mode of urban development driven by the deregulation of legal and planning frameworks to meet the demands of private investors, which often directly endangers public safety. In this configuration, urban planning is a mechanism for capital accumulation, with public resources and land converted into speculative assets. Public interest is redefined as a business opportunity, and democratic procedures are hollowed out or bypassed entirely. Construction and renovation projects are used as a political spectacle to mask the extraction of public wealth. The result is a violent political economy in which local populations bear the brunt of physical, social, and environmental risks, while elites closely tied to ruling structures and foreign investors reap the profits. This is more than just uneven neoliberal development. Rather, it is a form of antisocial development that actively erodes the remaining elements of the social fabric to make room for private interests and necropublic development. This type of development turns public infrastructure into a money-extraction machine that produces life-threatening projects.
Maintaining this system requires a culture of fear as an essential tool of governance. Fear is cultivated not only through overt violence or repression, but also through institutionalized precarity, such as threats of job loss, blacklisting, and public shaming. Professionals who speak out risk losing contracts or employment, and ordinary citizens fear retaliation for even mild forms of dissent. This pervasive fear depoliticizes the urban condition, discouraging collective organizing and reducing the public to passive observers of their own dispossession. Violence becomes an integral part of urban governance, used not only to suppress dissent, but also to ensure the continuation of deadly projects and business as usual.
Confronting deadly urbanism
While officials offered generic condolences and avoided responsibility in the aftermath of the canopy collapse, people began to gather in the streets. At the Faculty of Dramatic Arts (FDU) in Belgrade, students organized a vigil to honor the victims. During this peaceful gathering, a group of pro-government thugs attacked the students. This galvanized wider support for student resistance, helping to spark ten months of university blockades and organized protests against the political structures that had engineered deadly urbanism. The prime minister resigned after these events, but the president later pardoned the perpetrators.
These events evolved into one of the most sustained waves of resistance in Serbia’s recent history. Students were among the first to organize, launching a coordinated network of university blockades across the country. Through open plenums, students rejected representative leadership structures and practiced collective decision-making. Each faculty operated autonomously within a growing federal system of coordination, which allowed for unity of action across different cities and universities. The initial demands were clear:
1. Publication of the complete documentation concerning the reconstruction of the Novi Sad Railway Station
2. Confirmation of the identities of those who assaulted students and professors and initiation of criminal proceedings against them
3. Withdrawal of criminal charges against students arrested and detained during the protests
4. Increase of 20% in funding for state universities
Massive street mobilizations brought citizens together in a shared refusal of fear. Attempts were made to launch a general strike. While not all sectors responded immediately, the education sector saw the first coordinated walkouts. In March alone, at least 1,697 protests were held across 378 locations throughout Serbia. In addition to regular protests, March saw the emergence of a ‘new format’ of public assembly: zborovi, or community councils. At least 200 zborovi were recorded in 63 municipalities and 121 settlements. During a protest in Belgrade that drew people from across the country, a sound cannon was reportedly used against demonstrators. Despite evidence of its deployment, the state officially denied that the device had been used. This marked a new phase in the movement. As repression intensified, including attacks on students, arrests, and media disinformation, the movement expanded to encompass every village and cross borders through student actions. After months of protesting and calling on institutions to do their job without receiving any response, the students added a new demand: elections.
In parallel with the major events initiated by students, Expo 2027 in Belgrade has become one of the major fronts of resistance regarding urban issues. Scheduled for 2027, it will be held under the theme ‘Play for Humanity: Sport and Music for All.’ The Expodiraću initiative, comprising students and professors, has raised alarm over deregulation, the shift in project scope, the lack of public consultation, and the environmental cost. This is especially concerning because the chosen site includes parts of the Sava embankment and water-source protection zones. Resistance against deadly urbanism is not just grounded in big projects, but also in a growing list of concrete failures across Serbia. For instance, in Saranovo, a municipality in Rača, a recently renovated classroom ceiling collapsed during the Easter vacation, just a few months after the renovation was completed. In Niš, part of the ceiling at the Cardiology Clinic collapsed. These examples illustrate the slow accumulation of risk in every classroom, clinic, and public hall.
The guardians of collapse
In the early stages of the uprising, the regime employed its long-standing strategy of waiting it out. This time, however, the tactic failed. As the strategy of silence collapsed, a new one emerged: strategic mimicry. In late May 2024, the state launched a counter-movement called the Movement for People and the State. It is described as a response from ordinary people unaffiliated with any political party. Soon after, the regime opened Ćaciland, a parody camp branded as a space for Students 2.0 to protest the blockades and claim their right to learn. Government media portrayed the Ćaci as the ‘reasonable youth,’ while the real student movement was framed as ‘violent,’ ‘extremist,’ and ‘foreign-influenced.’ However, the so-called student campers were quickly identified by neighbors and journalists as local SNS functionaries and paid provocateurs. To maintain this facade, social assistance money has been used to pay pro-government thugs and mobilize vulnerable populations to participate in staged, pro-regime protests.
Frustration deepened in August, and confrontations escalated, particularly in front of the SNS headquarters in several cities. Masked provocateurs repeatedly attacked protesters. The police openly protected the regime’s proxies while suppressing citizens who protested. The social atmosphere became increasingly polarized and volatile. The division between ‘ćaci’ and ‘blokaderi’ was evident not only in slogans but also in everyday actions. In September, in an attempt to suppress resistance and regain control of the narrative, the regime began organizing anti-blockade gatherings in cities and municipalities across Serbia. These events are presented as spontaneous expressions of ‘common sense’ and the ‘silent majority of Serbia,’ but they are actually based on pressure and manipulation. Independent journalists and local media have documented people being brought to these rallies in an organized manner. Some participants have testified that they attended under the threat of losing their jobs, while others have admitted to participating in exchange for financial compensation.
From deadly to life-nurturing urbanism
While we organize political rallies and demonstrations, deadly urbanism continues. On September 22, the president announced a new law titled Finally own on our land to legalize illegal construction. Over the past ten years, the number of illegally constructed buildings in Serbia has increased by 3.3 million, bringing the total to 4.8 million today. Although the law imposes penalties for illegal construction, including imprisonment of up to eight years, this has not curbed the practice. Now, the authorities are offering a cheap legalization solution: registering these buildings in the cadastre without assessing the condition of the structure. This approach effectively removes investors from criminal responsibility and facilitates money laundering. The collapse of the railway canopy in Novi Sad was no accident. It was a direct consequence of a crony governing structure in which reconstruction serves private and political interests. While deadly urbanism originated in Serbia, it is emerging as a global pattern, a hallmark of contemporary authoritarian capitalism, where cities are built not for people but for profit and at any cost. The consequences of deadly urbanism are not abstract; they result in real, measurable human loss.
As we resist deadly urbanism, a new, life-nurturing world is slowly emerging. According to the ‘Release Them All’ initiative’s database, more than 1,000 citizens and students have been arrested since the protests began. Supporters of the arrested are organizing daily actions in various towns and cities across Serbia under the slogan ‘No one is alone.’ These protests show that people are no longer isolated and that the regime’s new attempts to reimpose fear are failing. Resistance is not only about refusal; it is also about creating spaces where life can continue and be reimagined. Solidarity protests, along with a broader social movement, are early forms of this emerging reality. What we are witnessing is a transition: the old world is dying and a new one is being born – messy, unfinished, and unfolding in a time of monsters.
Note from the editors: The writing up of this article was made possible by Östersjöstiftelsen, under grant number DNR 22-GP-0001.