Модернизација балканског града (1944–1989): компаративна анализа развоја Чачка и Благоевграда у епохи социјализма

English title: Modernization of the Balkan City (1944–1989): A Comparative Analysis of the Development of Čačak and Blagoevgrad in the Socialist Era

The monograph examines socialist modernization through the development of two medium-sized Balkan cities: Čačak in Serbia and Blagoevgrad in Bulgaria. Instead of treating socialism only through state policy, ideology, or party decisions, the book follows it in the places where development strategies became concrete social reality: factories, housing estates, urban plans, schools, cultural institutions, local administration, everyday life, and private life.

Its main value lies in raising local history to the level of comparative social analysis. Čačak and Blagoevgrad are not presented as isolated local cases, but as two comparable settings in which different socialist models produced similar ambitions, yet different urban, economic, cultural, and everyday outcomes.

The book is therefore not limited to industry and urbanization. One of its important contributions is the analysis of how modernization reshaped everyday and private life: food, clothing, leisure, entertainment, family relations, consumer habits, and the sense of urban belonging. This is where the concrete effects and limits of socialism become most visible.

The book shows that socialist modernization was neither a fiction nor a simple story of progress. It brought industry, new occupations, broader education, urban growth, cultural institutions, infrastructure, and new forms of consumption. At the same time, it produced technological lag, incomplete urbanization, dependence on political power, weak institutions, and limited individual autonomy. The key concept of the book is therefore limited modernity.