Representation of the demographic problems of Serbian border region in public policy

Abstract

Sažetak: U radu se govori o demografskim procesima i problemima pograničnog prostora Srbije. Cilj rada jeste da se utvrdi zastupljenost demografskih problema ovog specifičnog prostora u strateškim dokumentima. Rad se sastoji iz dve celine, gde se u prvom delu rada analiziraju demografske karakteristike pograničnog prostora Srbije. U drugom delu rada se ispituje zastupljenost demografskih problema pograničnih krajeva u strateškim dokumentima Republike Srbije. Analizira se da li su i na koji način demografski problemi pograničnih krajeva uključeni u javne politike. Za analizu demografskih osobenosti korišćene su demografske metode, dok su u drugom delu rada korišćene metode posmatranja, sakupljanja, sređivanja podataka i analiza. Rezultati do kojih se došlo u radu ukazuju da pogranične opštine u Srbiji u proseku imaju nepovoljnije demografske karakteristike u odnosu na opštine koje nemaju pogranični status, ali i da se unutar ove grupe opština one međusobno značajno razlikuju. Postoje opštine negativnih demografskih ekstrema, i u njima su zabeležene ekstremne vrednosti određenih demografskih pokazatalja na nacionalnom nivou. Kritička analiza ukazuje da su u strateškim dokumentima predstavljeni osnovni demografski trendovi u pograničnom prostoru Srbije. Pri čemu se ovo područje predstavlja kao jedinstvena celina, čija je osobenost geografska osetljivost, ekonomska nerazvijenost i demografski problemi. Ključne reči: pogranični prostor Srbije, javne politike, demografski procesi, stanovništvo, diferenciranost.Abstract: The paper deals with demographic problems of Serbian border region. The aim of the paper is to determine representation of demographic problems of this specific space in strategic documents. The paper consists of two parts, where the first part of the paper analyzes the demographic characteristics of the Serbian border area. The second part of the paper examines the representation of the demographic problems of the border regions in the strategic documents of the Republic of Serbia. It is analyzed whether and in what way the demographic problems of the border areas are included in public policies. Demographic methods were used to analyze demographic characteristics, while the second part of the paper used methods of observation, collection, collating and analysis. The results obtained in the paper indicate that border municipalities in Serbia have, on average, less favorable dmeographic characteristics than municipalities without border

Socio-demographic analysis of border regions of Bosnia and Herzegovina

“…Delimitation methods for borderlands are often based on administrative criteria, encompassing the municipalities or regions along state borders. This principle is widely used, particularly in geographic research (Zupanc 2018;Anđelković-Stoilković 2019), because of the availability of statistical data, but there are also range of other criteria (Jeřábek et al 2004;Bufon 2007;Nejašmić 2008;Máliková et al 2015).…”

“…Borderlands research in Southeast Europe (e.g., in Serbia and Croatia) has applied a range of methodological approaches to confirm the hypothesis of border regions as economically, socially and demographically marginalized parts of the national territory (Popović and Radeljak 2011;Zorko 2012;Pejnović and Kordej-De Villa 2015;Vukmirović et al 2016). In comparing the socio-economic indicators of border regions with the national average and examining the standard of living in these areas (Máliková et al 2015;Đerčan et al 2016), determining the incidence of demographic issues (Zupanc 2018;Anđelković-Stoilković 2019) and analyzing borderlands in the context of national security (Vukmirović et al 2016), multiple authors have concluded that border regions are observed through the paradigm of spatial polarization due to the disparity in the levels of development between the center and periphery.…”

“…al. 2016;Anđelković-Stoilković 2019). Máliková et al (2015) suggested that it would be interesting to follow the development of social indicators on the opposite side of external border of European Union, such as borderlands of Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina.…”