Serbia (Vojvodina and Central Sebia) is today Srbija among the least urbanized areas in Europe. The portion of urban population is estimated at about 55%. This indicator in itself is not of particular importance for the estimation of the reached level of urbanization. The indicators of the quality of living in urban and rural areas are much more important. At this moment, there is no systematic, reliable and unified insight into the level of development and the achieved standards of the basic settlement contents (railway and road network and communal infrastructure, public services, dwelling, green land) nor have been established indicators of the quality of living which are regularly being used in European states. Marked migrations to several great cities, in particular to Belgrade and Novi Sad, and dramatical ageing and diminution of rural settlements point at great differences in quality of living and in possibilities of solving existential problems. Urbocentric policy during the years after the Second World War, in conditions of planned (command) economy, had increased the differences in quality of living between the urban and rural settlements and induced the metropolization of Serbia. These flows were particularly accelerated and deepened during the last decade of the 20th century which was labeled by the economic collapse of the country, the fall in of the institutions, high corruption of the state agencies and public sector, criminal activities permeating business life, the establishment of pseudo-market relations and the intensified populistic demagogy. From the point of view of the quality of living and the urbanity of settlements, the heaviest resultant of the dramatical flows in the last decade of the 20th century in Serbia is the annulment of urbanistic norm as the fundamental instrument of the settlements building, planning and use. The subject of this paper is the research in the causes of the present state of the quality of living and the urbanity of the settlements in Serbia, with a number of spatial-settlement dysfunctionalities, subcivilisational standards and vague developmental prospects.

Srbija (Vojvodina i centralna Srbija) je danas među najslabije urbaniziranim područjima u Europi. Udjel gradskog stanovništva procjenjuje se na otprilike 55%. Taj pokazatelj sam po sebi nije naročito važan za prosudbu dostignute razine urbanizacije. Mnogo su važniji indikatori kvaliteta življenja u gradskim i seoskim područjima. Sada ne postoji sistematski, pouzdan i objedinjen uvid u razinu razvijenosti i ostvarene standarde osnovnih sadržaja naselja (prometna i komunalna infrastruktura, javne službe, stanovanje, zelene površine), niti su ustanovljeni pokazatelji kakvoće življenja koji se standardne rabe u europskim državama. Izražene migracije prema nekoliko velikih gradova, naročito prema Beogradu i Novome Sadu, i dramatično starenje i smanjenje seoskih naselja, ukazuju na velike razlike u kvaliteti življenja i mogućnostima rješavanja životnih problema. Urbocentrična politika u godinama poslije Drugoga svjetskog rata, u uvjetima komandne ekonomije, povećala je razlike u kakvoći življenja izmedu gradskih i seoskih naselja i potakla metropolizaciju Srbije. Ti su tokovi naročito ubrzani i produbljeni tijekom posljednjeg desetljeća 20. stoljeća, koje je obilježeno ekonomskim kolapsom zemlje, urušavanjem institucija, visokom korupcijom državnih službi i javnog sektora, kriminalizacijom privrednog života, uspostavljanjem pseudotržišnih odnosa i naglašenom populističkom demagogijom. Motreći iz kuta kakvoće življenja i urbanosti naselja, najteža rezultanta dramatičnih tokova u posljednjem desetljeću 20. stoljeća u Srbiji je poništavanje urbanističke norme, kao temeljnog instrumenta izgradnje, uređenja i korištenja naselja. Predmet ovog rada je istraživanje uzroka sadašnjeg stanja kvalitete življenja i urbanosti naselja u Srbiji, sa brojnim prostorno-naseljskim disfunkcionalnostima, podcivilizacijskim standardima i nejasnim razvojnim perspektivama.