"Place Identity" in Trinitat Nova. A discursive approach

Abstract

In this work I analyze, from a discursive and narratological perspective, the "place identity" of the inhabitants of Barcelona’s neighborhood Trinitat Nova. First, I make a critical review of the concept "place identity", from the definitions traditionally employed in environmental psychology to other alternative approaches, pointing out their strengths and weaknesses. Trinitat Nova has undergone and is undergoing deep urban reforms, which allows incorporating the dimension of time to this study when taking into account the phenomenon of change. With the compilation of narratives through semi-structured interviews with the neighbors and their subsequent analysis, I show up the tensions that go across these identity constructions and the particular social configurations that permeate their articulation. This approach perspective, which emphasizes the social dimension, could be useful for a better understanding of the power relations at stake and open the possibility to transformations that contemplate the situation of groups in marginalized position.