diff --git a/django/template/base.py b/django/template/base.py
index 8642f4d4f5..86ba0301b8 100644
--- a/django/template/base.py
+++ b/django/template/base.py
@@ -817,7 +817,7 @@ class NodeList(list):
                 bits.append(self.render_node(node, context))
             else:
                 bits.append(node)
-        return mark_safe(''.join([force_unicode(b) for b in bits]))
+        return mark_safe(u''.join([force_unicode(b) for b in bits]))
 
     def get_nodes_by_type(self, nodetype):
         "Return a list of all nodes of the given type"
diff --git a/django/utils/encoding.py b/django/utils/encoding.py
index 96d915a433..36e0da2915 100644
--- a/django/utils/encoding.py
+++ b/django/utils/encoding.py
@@ -81,7 +81,7 @@ def force_unicode(s, encoding='utf-8', strings_only=False, errors='strict'):
                     # without raising a further exception. We do an
                     # approximation to what the Exception's standard str()
                     # output should be.
-                    s = ' '.join([force_unicode(arg, encoding, strings_only,
+                    s = u' '.join([force_unicode(arg, encoding, strings_only,
                             errors) for arg in s])
         elif not isinstance(s, unicode):
             # Note: We use .decode() here, instead of unicode(s, encoding,
@@ -97,7 +97,7 @@ def force_unicode(s, encoding='utf-8', strings_only=False, errors='strict'):
             # working unicode method. Try to handle this without raising a
             # further exception by individually forcing the exception args
             # to unicode.
-            s = ' '.join([force_unicode(arg, encoding, strings_only,
+            s = u' '.join([force_unicode(arg, encoding, strings_only,
                     errors) for arg in s])
     return s