Shifting from liminality to destination. The case of Vrisera

Abstract

More than half of European cities shrank in the period 1990-2010(Wiechmann 2013). This kind of urban transformation is a multidimensional process. It impacts economic and social domain. Shrinkage is also a phenomenon on several cities and rural areas in Albania. Among others Dropull can be considered a shrinking area as it has notably a smaller population and decline in economy compared with its past. Shrinkage can be seen as a liminality, as a transition phase of urban transformation. Liminality has many fields of study, but this research will examine the urban one. This paper will designate the main components in a shrinking area seen from the perspective of liminality as a threshold in time and place with its material and relational dimension. The material dimension of liminality refers to the physical consequences emerging during the shrinking process, consequences that might be temporary. Amongst the challenges that migration/depopulation brings is also the housing stock, the abandoned vacant structures. The relation dimension will examine the abandonment of social habitat due to emigration, lack of activity and the deterioration of public spaces. In an effort to restore a sustainable urban settlement, the question of how can the component with liminal character help the process of building an identity emerges?