The tram to the 21st century and other stories: Belgrade public transport between technology and politics

Abstract

This paper investigates the development of Belgrade public transport system, and issues arising therefrom, through the lens of two concepts developed by scholars from the field of science, technology, and society: relevant social groups and sociotechnical imaginaries. Both concepts were conceived in order to explain and adequately theorize ways in which society and technology shape each other, with special emphasis on the political aspects of this process. Rather than trying to explain the entire history of the system, the paper will focus on several points of controversy during the 20th and 21st centuries. The main aim of the paper is to show, through these examples, that the proposed conceptual framework could be useful for understanding complex sociotechnical systems such as public transport.