The Past upon which the Future Dwells: Lines and divisions in the Former Yugoslavia

The chapter compares the twin city with the divided city as urban phenomena, drawing explicitly on two examples from the Western Balkans: first, exemplifying twins, Brod in Republica Srbska and the Croatian town, Slavonski Brod, towns divided by the river Sava; second, exemplifying a divided city, Vukovar, a Croatian border town located by the Danube. Whether towns divide ethnically, or inter-relate as twins, depends on how relationships form and how divisions are activated and thus on the potentialities in the local landscape for interaction and collaboration across divisions. Hence, the chapter explores symbols and memories of divisions in the two urban landscapes, thereby illustrating how divisions are conceived, constructed and problematised locally, including questions about whether divisions are perceived as necessary to achieve peace and stability. The comparison underlines that divisions articulate and identities form in distinct ways even in border areas located in proximity and marked by similar violent conflicts.