European periphery and the Yugoslav Understanding of Planning: Researching Ideas for Making Environmental Strategies

The project, ""European periphery and the Yugoslav Understanding of Planning: Researching Ideas for Making Environmental Strategies"" (E-YU-PRIME) aims to improve contemporary environmental planning practices in the European periphery by learning from a historically unique form of planning in Yugoslavia called ""social planning"".

This approach sought to combine democratic planning in Yugoslavia as a peripheral country of the Global South with a just green transition to a less materially intensive economy following the publication of the ""Limits to Growth"" in 1972, making Yugoslavia the only socialist and peripheral country with official state-backed discussions on post-growth planning one can learn from today.

By focusing on the forgotten history of Yugoslavias planning institutes and their role in the country's industrial and economic policy via archival research and interviews with the last living generation of planners, and their contemporary counterparts in Environmental Ministries in post-Yugoslav EU countries today, the project will explore the ideas and history behind a forgotten post-growth green transition within Yugoslavia and uncover how it impacted the countrys industrial policy from 1972-1991 in order to learn how ""social planning"" can be used in the European periphery for Europe's Green transition.

The findings, which will be published in peer-reviewed journals, a book and will include video interviews and archival footage, will then be a key contribution for contemporary policymakers in in the Western Balkans with possible use to other peripheral countries like Spain and Portugal in events organized by E-YU-PRIME.