The Ontological Security-Seeking Paradox
Domestic and International Effects of Public Architecture in North Macedonia’s ‘Skopje 2014’ Project
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 11922160 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Christopher M Jackson (0000-0002-7506-600X, Loyola Marymount University), Jelena Subotić (0000-0002-8790-7363, Georgia State University, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2024 |
| Volume | 53 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Pages | 3-30 |
| Publication date | 2024-04-09 |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Millennium Journal of International Studies (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0305-8298 • E-ISSN: 1477-9021 |
| Publisher | SAGE Publishing (PUBLISHER • US) |
| DOI | 10.1177/03058298241231742 |
| OpenAlex | W4394621981 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 4 |
This article theorises the relationship between material environment and state ontological security by analysing how public architecture is used to defend, assert or construct state sense of self in international society. The article articulates the dynamic relationship between the two audiences of public architecture projects – international and domestic – and demonstrates how a project aimed at ensuring ontological security with one audience can produce anxiety and insecurity for the other. We illustrate this argument with the analysis of ‘Skopje 2014’ – a hugely ambitious architectural project by the government of Macedonia (now North Macedonia), designed to give the capital Skopje a completely new, neo-classical architectural look. However, instead of securing Macedonia’s ‘European’ visual identity, ‘Skopje 2014’ produced tremendous domestic political conflict and further removed Macedonia from the European cultural space it so much desired. Our study moves the scholarship on ontological security forward by specifying the dynamic trade-off between international and domestic security-seeking in contested polities
Aesthetics · Argument (complex analysis · Construct (python library · Government (linguistics · Identity (music · Ontological security · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Public relations · Scholarship · Security studies · Sociology · State (computer science · Balkans: History, Politics, Society · Computer Science · Law · Public Administration · Architecture
| Citations per year | 4 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 2025 - 2026 (2) |
| Highly cited | No |