Ana Aceska
Biographic Data
| ID | 107637 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Ana Aceska |
| GIVEN NAMES | Ana |
| FAMILY NAME | Aceska |
| SIGNATURE | ACESKA A |
| AFFILIATIONS | Wageningen University & Research |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-0315-1969 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 16 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 44 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 16 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2012 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 3 |
Home as temporary unless owned
Amidst the rise of the private rental market worldwide, this paper explores how “home” is constructed and experienced in relation to the presence and absence of legal regulations. Focusing on migrant renters, it examines how senses of home are formed in contexts where legal mechanisms governing tenancy are virtually absent. Situated within the fields of legal geography and critical perspectives of homemaking, the analyses draw on ethnographic res…
At home in the high-rise
This paper foregrounds the varied and uneven temporalities between law and new urban developments. In some cities, new urban developments are carefully anticipated and regulated by law, while in others, authorities struggle to foresee or adequately respond to the scale and pace of urban transformation. Against this backdrop, the paper asks: how do people navigate everyday life in a new type of housing when the legal scaffolding needed to support …
My city or my planet? Rethinking the EU cultural policy toward planetary heritage and planetary senses of belonging
Planetary senses of belonging are important as humanity is facing planetary threats, such as the climate crisis, biodiversity loss, pandemic risks, and growing economic and social disparities. This paper argues that the cultural and heritage policies and agendas of cities, nation-states, and international political actors can do more to address these threats than merely preserving and managing heritage. Instead, they should steer heritage-making …
In but not fully of Europe’
The European Union (EU) and Council of Europe (CoE) are in a continuous struggle to identify the internal ‘Europeanness’ of their narratives, borders, boundaries, and regions. Since the 1980s, they introduced numerous cultural policies and heritage initiatives to identify and promote what their policy rhetoric calls ‘European identity’, a concept always used in the singular. These policies and heritage initiatives validate only certain aspects of…
“We Closed Down Mpape on the Judgement Day”
Informal settlements in major urban areas are often derided through discourses as pockets of poverty, disorder, and marginalisation. Consequently, city planning officials often seek to eliminate or reduce such settlements for more ordered planned settlements. Yet, informal urban settlements continue to remain a part of urban life and have, in many places, increased in size and density. This paper provides an ethnographic account of the place-maki…
The sounds of who we are
In scholarly analyses, popular representations, and professional responses, the image of the city, divided along ethnic and religious lines, is encoded in dualistic metaphors of "us and them" and "our side and their side of the city".Those imaginations of divided cities are based on the assumption that the city dwellers of different ethno-religious groups do not share a sense of togetherness and community.In this paper, we crossfertilize literatu…
The making of urban informal settlements
History matters. Yet, explanations about the contemporary dynamics around informal settlements in global South cities are often divorced from their historical antecedents. We argue that a retrospective approach is important in analyzing and understanding the current dynamics around informal settlements. Applying the historical institutionalism approach and the concepts of critical junctures and path dependency, this paper develops an institutiona…
Doing sonic urban ethnography
Matters of sound and listening are increasingly being attended to across the social sciences and humanities, reflecting what has been termed a 'sonic turn' since the early 2000s. In urban ethnographic research, scholars are starting to pay attention to the role of sound in social relations, in expressions of identity and senses of belonging, as well as in processes of othering. In this paper, we explore the theoretical and methodological opportun…
Vertical Geographies, Polyvocality and the Everyday in a Divided City
The vertical turn in urban scholarship is a critique of the overly horizontal perspectives used in studying cities in academic research. This article broadens this scholarship by engaging with the ways that horizontal perspectives on urban conditions dominate not only scholarly perspectives but also professional responses to urban change. By drawing on research in the divided city of Mostar in Bosnia and Herzegovina, it argues for a ‘polyvocal’ a…
Constructive juxtaposition’ as a policy assemblage method
The policy assemblage approaches offer productive ways to understand how actors, institutions, and discourses interact to steer policies in different directions and produce new meanings and relations in society. However, they are disadvantaged by the lack of productive methodologies. This study addresses this gap by introducing the method of ‘constructive juxtaposition’ and engaging with an interdisciplinary approach to studying policy assemblage…
Designating heritage as European
In an attempt to foster its citizens’ identification with Europe, the European Union has made a great effort to identify what can be called ‘common European heritage’. Many heritage initiatives, centred around the idea that heritage should be designated as European by the member states’ heritage sectors, have proven counterproductive – instead of reaching their goal to construct a more stable European identity, they served as repositories of nati…
Doing the City from the Margins
This special issue focuses on urban marginality in diverse contexts across the world (Africa, Latin America, Arab States and Europe) and proposes anthropological perspectives on contemporary urbanity that take into account the complexity of the social positions of those city dwellers that are on the margins. Three aspects of urban margins come to the fore. First, urbanites respond to increasing marginalisation through the production of alternativ…
Everyday Encounters in the Shopping Mall
The many studies that see shopping malls as places of power, control and exclusion have often neglected the potential of malls as places of encounters. Drawing on ethnographic data from the divided cities of Johannesburg in South Africa and Mostar in Bosnia-Herzegovina, we examine the ways in which urban dwellers who enter the mall from a marginalised position - poor black urban dwellers at a regional, middle class and white-dominated mall in Joh…
Transnational Experts, Rooted Careers. Migrant Professionals from Macedonia in Germany
This article is based on a study of migrant professionals from Macedonia who are now in Germany. It aims to assess how migrants who practise professions relate to their identities as experts who can sustain (or at least have the opportunity to sustain) relationships linking their places and societies of origin and the places where they have settled, and who can use these links to assist their careers. The results show a particular pattern: simult…
Scott A.Bollens2012
Loose Space
Doing the City from the Margins
This special issue focuses on urban marginality in diverse contexts across the world (Africa, Latin America, Arab States and Europe) and proposes anthropological perspectives on contemporary urbanity that take into account the complexity of the social positions of those city dwellers that are on the margins. Three aspects of urban margins come to the fore. First, urbanites respond to increasing marginalisation through the production of alternativ…
Everyday Encounters in the Shopping Mall
The many studies that see shopping malls as places of power, control and exclusion have often neglected the potential of malls as places of encounters. Drawing on ethnographic data from the divided cities of Johannesburg in South Africa and Mostar in Bosnia-Herzegovina, we examine the ways in which urban dwellers who enter the mall from a marginalised position - poor black urban dwellers at a regional, middle class and white-dominated mall in Joh…
Designating heritage as European
In an attempt to foster its citizens’ identification with Europe, the European Union has made a great effort to identify what can be called ‘common European heritage’. Many heritage initiatives, centred around the idea that heritage should be designated as European by the member states’ heritage sectors, have proven counterproductive – instead of reaching their goal to construct a more stable European identity, they served as repositories of nati…
Doing sonic urban ethnography
Matters of sound and listening are increasingly being attended to across the social sciences and humanities, reflecting what has been termed a 'sonic turn' since the early 2000s. In urban ethnographic research, scholars are starting to pay attention to the role of sound in social relations, in expressions of identity and senses of belonging, as well as in processes of othering. In this paper, we explore the theoretical and methodological opportun…
The making of urban informal settlements
History matters. Yet, explanations about the contemporary dynamics around informal settlements in global South cities are often divorced from their historical antecedents. We argue that a retrospective approach is important in analyzing and understanding the current dynamics around informal settlements. Applying the historical institutionalism approach and the concepts of critical junctures and path dependency, this paper develops an institutiona…
Constructive juxtaposition’ as a policy assemblage method
The policy assemblage approaches offer productive ways to understand how actors, institutions, and discourses interact to steer policies in different directions and produce new meanings and relations in society. However, they are disadvantaged by the lack of productive methodologies. This study addresses this gap by introducing the method of ‘constructive juxtaposition’ and engaging with an interdisciplinary approach to studying policy assemblage…
The sounds of who we are
In scholarly analyses, popular representations, and professional responses, the image of the city, divided along ethnic and religious lines, is encoded in dualistic metaphors of "us and them" and "our side and their side of the city".Those imaginations of divided cities are based on the assumption that the city dwellers of different ethno-religious groups do not share a sense of togetherness and community.In this paper, we crossfertilize literatu…
Loose Space
Scott A.Bollens2012
Transnational Experts, Rooted Careers. Migrant Professionals from Macedonia in Germany
This article is based on a study of migrant professionals from Macedonia who are now in Germany. It aims to assess how migrants who practise professions relate to their identities as experts who can sustain (or at least have the opportunity to sustain) relationships linking their places and societies of origin and the places where they have settled, and who can use these links to assist their careers. The results show a particular pattern: simult…
Doing the City from the Margins
This special issue focuses on urban marginality in diverse contexts across the world (Africa, Latin America, Arab States and Europe) and proposes anthropological perspectives on contemporary urbanity that take into account the complexity of the social positions of those city dwellers that are on the margins. Three aspects of urban margins come to the fore. First, urbanites respond to increasing marginalisation through the production of alternativ…
Everyday Encounters in the Shopping Mall
The many studies that see shopping malls as places of power, control and exclusion have often neglected the potential of malls as places of encounters. Drawing on ethnographic data from the divided cities of Johannesburg in South Africa and Mostar in Bosnia-Herzegovina, we examine the ways in which urban dwellers who enter the mall from a marginalised position - poor black urban dwellers at a regional, middle class and white-dominated mall in Joh…
Designating heritage as European
In an attempt to foster its citizens’ identification with Europe, the European Union has made a great effort to identify what can be called ‘common European heritage’. Many heritage initiatives, centred around the idea that heritage should be designated as European by the member states’ heritage sectors, have proven counterproductive – instead of reaching their goal to construct a more stable European identity, they served as repositories of nati…
Vertical Geographies, Polyvocality and the Everyday in a Divided City
The vertical turn in urban scholarship is a critique of the overly horizontal perspectives used in studying cities in academic research. This article broadens this scholarship by engaging with the ways that horizontal perspectives on urban conditions dominate not only scholarly perspectives but also professional responses to urban change. By drawing on research in the divided city of Mostar in Bosnia and Herzegovina, it argues for a ‘polyvocal’ a…
Constructive juxtaposition’ as a policy assemblage method
The policy assemblage approaches offer productive ways to understand how actors, institutions, and discourses interact to steer policies in different directions and produce new meanings and relations in society. However, they are disadvantaged by the lack of productive methodologies. This study addresses this gap by introducing the method of ‘constructive juxtaposition’ and engaging with an interdisciplinary approach to studying policy assemblage…
“We Closed Down Mpape on the Judgement Day”
Informal settlements in major urban areas are often derided through discourses as pockets of poverty, disorder, and marginalisation. Consequently, city planning officials often seek to eliminate or reduce such settlements for more ordered planned settlements. Yet, informal urban settlements continue to remain a part of urban life and have, in many places, increased in size and density. This paper provides an ethnographic account of the place-maki…
The sounds of who we are
In scholarly analyses, popular representations, and professional responses, the image of the city, divided along ethnic and religious lines, is encoded in dualistic metaphors of "us and them" and "our side and their side of the city".Those imaginations of divided cities are based on the assumption that the city dwellers of different ethno-religious groups do not share a sense of togetherness and community.In this paper, we crossfertilize literatu…
The making of urban informal settlements
History matters. Yet, explanations about the contemporary dynamics around informal settlements in global South cities are often divorced from their historical antecedents. We argue that a retrospective approach is important in analyzing and understanding the current dynamics around informal settlements. Applying the historical institutionalism approach and the concepts of critical junctures and path dependency, this paper develops an institutiona…
Doing sonic urban ethnography
Matters of sound and listening are increasingly being attended to across the social sciences and humanities, reflecting what has been termed a 'sonic turn' since the early 2000s. In urban ethnographic research, scholars are starting to pay attention to the role of sound in social relations, in expressions of identity and senses of belonging, as well as in processes of othering. In this paper, we explore the theoretical and methodological opportun…
In but not fully of Europe’
The European Union (EU) and Council of Europe (CoE) are in a continuous struggle to identify the internal ‘Europeanness’ of their narratives, borders, boundaries, and regions. Since the 1980s, they introduced numerous cultural policies and heritage initiatives to identify and promote what their policy rhetoric calls ‘European identity’, a concept always used in the singular. These policies and heritage initiatives validate only certain aspects of…
Home as temporary unless owned
Amidst the rise of the private rental market worldwide, this paper explores how “home” is constructed and experienced in relation to the presence and absence of legal regulations. Focusing on migrant renters, it examines how senses of home are formed in contexts where legal mechanisms governing tenancy are virtually absent. Situated within the fields of legal geography and critical perspectives of homemaking, the analyses draw on ethnographic res…
At home in the high-rise
This paper foregrounds the varied and uneven temporalities between law and new urban developments. In some cities, new urban developments are carefully anticipated and regulated by law, while in others, authorities struggle to foresee or adequately respond to the scale and pace of urban transformation. Against this backdrop, the paper asks: how do people navigate everyday life in a new type of housing when the legal scaffolding needed to support …
My city or my planet? Rethinking the EU cultural policy toward planetary heritage and planetary senses of belonging
Planetary senses of belonging are important as humanity is facing planetary threats, such as the climate crisis, biodiversity loss, pandemic risks, and growing economic and social disparities. This paper argues that the cultural and heritage policies and agendas of cities, nation-states, and international political actors can do more to address these threats than merely preserving and managing heritage. Instead, they should steer heritage-making …
Sociology (12 works) · Political science (9 works) · Urban Planning and Governance (6 works) · Cultural Heritage Management and Preservation (5 works) · Economics (5 works) · Geography (5 works) · Law (5 works) · Anthropology (4 works) · Ethnography (4 works) · Urban and Rural Development Challenges (4 works)