CRISIS OF URBAN IDENTITY: AMBIVALENCE OF VALUE GROUNDS AND SOCIAL PERSPECTIVES

Abstract

The article discusses the problem of urban identity in the opposition between global and local processes in urban space. Urban identity is viewed as a type of individual’s social identity in relation to his/her affiliation to a certain urban community. The study of the causes and effects of the urban identity’s crisis is based on the notion of this identity as valuable and meaningful cohesion of individuals and urban community. The problem of urban identity is studied via the analysis of modern concepts of social change in urban space, related to mainstream of human resources, financial, material, information resources. The article indicates that the crisis of identity is represented in the potential loss of individual and personal links to the city, in the loss of affiliation to the place of living, in the vanishing demand for urban identity. The notions of retrospective and prospective urban identity are introduced to identify the ground to maintain urban identity. Retrospective urban identity is based on the existence of so-called “places of memory” in urban space that integrate physical space, fragments of collective memory and individual valuable attitude to this memory as the inclusion to the city history. Prospective urban identity rests on individual’s cohesion and affiliation to future states of urban community as a source of potential social options. Assessments of directions for social change are figured out in positive and negative prospective urban identity, which defines residents’ migration intentions and their active participation in the city life.