Critical Cartographies of Socialist Spatial Production Split's Ring Road and the VIII Mediterranean Games as Urban Catalyst (1951-1979)

Abstract

In contemporary architectural and urban research, space has emerged as a fundamentally social construct that extends far beyond physical dimensions to encompass political, ecological, cultural, and symbolic territories. Rather than serving as a neutral container for human activities, space functions as an active agent in shaping social relations, facilitating political contestation, and enabling the formation of collective identities. Building upon Henri Lefebvre's understanding that space is produced through everyday practices and social relations, mapping emerges as an analytical instrument and a theoretical framework capable of revealing these generative mechanisms. This theoretical foundation informs critical cartographic methodologies developed in my doctoral research on Split's urban transformation for the VIII Mediterranean Games in 1979 (MIS), examined within the context of late socialist Yugoslavia.