Construction Of Urban Identities Research Articles

City, Space, Border and Identity: The Role of Urban Borders in the Construction of Urban Identities in Turkey

Bu çalışma, kentsel kimliklerin inşasında kentsel sınırların rolünü anlamayı amaçlamaktadır. Bu amaç doğrultusunda Türkiye’deki kentlerin kimliklerinden örneklerle kent, mekan, sınır ve kimlik ilişkisi anlaşılmaya çalışılmıştır. Kentsel mekanda kimliklerin nasıl inşa edildiği, kentsel sınırların kentsel kimliklerin inşasında nasıl bir role sahip olduğu, Türkiye’de kentsel sınırların kentsel kimliklerin inşasında ne tür örnekler sunduğu ve kentsel sınırlar üzerinden kentsel kimliklerin inşasının hangi boyutları ortaya çıkardığı bu çalışmanın temel sorunsalını oluşturmaktadır. Bu sorunsal çerçevesinde, çalışmada, kentsel kimlikler ile kentsel sınırlar arasındaki ilişkinin dört farklı boyutunun olduğu anlaşılmıştır. Kentsel kimliklerin kentsel sınırlar üzerinden şekillendiği, her kentin kendisini diğerlerinden ayırdığı, biricik hale getirdiği ve yüceleştirdiği gözlenmiştir. Kentsel sınırların göç ve kentleşme başta olmak üzere kentsel kimliklerdeki toplumsal süreçlerin bir yansıması olduğu görülmüştür. Kentsel kimliklerin yayılması karşısında kentsel sınırların daralan mekanlara dönüştüğü tespit edilmiştir. Kentsel sınırların kentsel kimliklerin iç içe geçtikleri ve çatıştıkları mekanlar halini aldığı anlaşılmıştır. Bu bağlamda, Türkiye’de kentsel kimliklerin ortaya koyduğu deneyimler, kentsel kimliklerin inşasında kentsel sınırların merkezi bir role sahip olduğu sonucunu ortaya koymuştur.

From street dance to hip hop

This text historicizes the concept of street dance (dança de rua) by showing distances and approaches in relation to hip hop. For this purpose, the analysis starts from the cultural history of street dance in the city of Uberlândia, Minas Gerais (Brazil), to understand the complex relationships that gave meaning and form to the practice of street dance between the 1980s and 1990s. In a first step, I investigate the various perspectives that permeate the bond between the popular dance and dance festivals, well as between the city neighbourhoods and dance clubs. In a second step, the analysis shifts to the cultural performance that allowed street dancers to migrate to the so-called hip hop dance. Analysing street dance and hip hop considering their ruptures and continuities, the text intends to contribute to studies dedicated to the presence of dance in the construction of urban identities.

Nuta po nucie. Lokalność muzyki popularnej a miejska tożsamość

Popular music is an indispensable part of peoples’ lives, shaping not only their aesthetic sensitivity and providing entertainment, but it also has the potential to construct their identities. Often having a strictly local character, it tells stories about regional specificity, creating its image and influencing its perception, while constructing the identity of its listeners. In this context, musical pieces directly related to the uniqueness of cities, some of which are often perceived as culturally distinctive from their surroundings, seems particularly interesting. The purpose of this paper is to analyse the topic of locality in music and its influence on the construction of urban identity. By studying cultural studies’ texts with particular emphasis on the concept of world cities, the research concentrates on the examples of urban centres, where their musical heritage suggests its strong influence on the construction of local identity. Moreover, the issue is extended to the role of locally-oriented artistic works and the ways in which they can build urban identity. The paper also poses the question about the role of music in shaping local identity and the degree of its participation in the process.

Santiago: Modernisation, segregation and urban identities in the twenty first century

This paper discusses research carried out in Santiago, Chile, and addresses the origin and construction of urban identities in this segregated city of the twenty‐first cen‐ tury. Based on sociological and ethnographic evidence, urban identity‐building processes are analysed by observ‐ ing the occupation, use and appropriation of territory. The hypothesis is that, despite evidence of segregation, modernisation and globalisation, urban people reinvent lifestyles within their territories in order to harmonise their bonds of affection and belonging by using distin‐ guishing markings or “brands” and by adopting typical everyday habits. The modern, segregated and global city is filled with “islands” that convey imagery and desires for a friendlier urban life. This paper analyses areas with com‐ munity identities, neo‐community identities and border UDC: 316.334.56:39(83)‘20‘ DOI: 10.5379/urbani-izziv-en-2011-22-02-002

The Art of Medieval Urbanism: Parthenay in Romanesque Aquitaine (review)

Reviewed by: The Art of Medieval Urbanism: Parthenay in Romanesque Aquitaine Max Staples Maxwell, Robert, The Art of Medieval Urbanism: Parthenay in Romanesque Aquitaine, University Park, Pennsylvania State University Press, 2007; cloth; pp. xxiv, 376; 190 b/w & 95 colour illustrations; R.R.P. US$90.00; ISBN 9870271029566. Robert Maxwell discusses the ten Romanesque churches built in Parthenay in the eleventh and twelfth centuries, with particular attention to their sculptural decoration. His book is wide-ranging, and painstakingly researched. For readers seeking information on this particular topic, Maxwell offers a wealth of detail. He has the enthusiasm and patience to follow leads, and records his discoveries comprehensively. At the same time, his work is not encyclopaedic and there are areas that Maxwell leaves out. His presentation is more akin to a series of unexpected detours than a planned journey. Maxwell is candid about the work under discussion. He concedes the modest status of some of the churches and the humble quality of their decoration, and he acknowledges the absence of a broad iconographic programme. He argues that their significance lies instead in their sheer number, compared to other [End Page 183] locations, and in what they reveal about the construction of urban identity. Maxwell proposes that in a first phase, the construction of church buildings served to transform Parthenay from a rural fortification to a regional power. The use of the motifs of the equestrian figure and the lion wrestler signalled the elevation of the leading family from castellans to lords with authority and a hereditary title. A pilgrim quarter and a church dedicated to St Jacques were built, not so much because there were pilgrims, but because that is what a town of substance had. In a subsequent period, stylistic influences from a variety of regions were introduced, as the affiliations of the local lords wavered. Where Maxwell uses historical and secondary sources to shed light on the art, he is at his most successful. When he attempts the converse, to shed light on history using the evidence of the artwork, he is on less certain ground. To arrive at his conclusions he pursues a series of hypothetical possibilities, each dependent on the previous. The two possible forms of landscape are identified as cultus and incultus. Maxwell finds a growing preference in the eleventh century for the cultus and for the built environment, which was expressed as a positive re-evaluation of the city. Maxwell assimilates the city with the town and re-badges the totality as urbanism. He emphasizes that the figurative elements depicted in the sculptural decorations might have no significance at all, except for being the choice, or within the repertoire, of the masons. On the chance, however, that they have any wider significance, such as expressing the values of the lords or the townspeople regarding urbanism, Maxwell explores the possibilities, at substantial length. This concentration on the figurative, and exploration of the interpretive possibilities, is perhaps a limitation of the book. Maxwell is reticent about the physical structure of Parthenay, the parts that make it up, and how they combine. The ten churches are taken as crucial, whereas the topography, access roads, streets, houses, chateau and citadel are not analysed, and the fortifications are discussed only at the end. This is despite the presence of some excellent diagrams. As with the text, the illustration is painstaking. Very few physical objects are mentioned that are not also illustrated. In a book of some 400 pages, there are 286 illustrations, most of them photographs taken by the author, the majority in colour. On many pages there are two and in some cases three photographs. The effect, however, for this reviewer, is underwhelming. There [End Page 184] are so many images that very few of them receive any discussion or analysis. Many of the pictures look similar, because they are of beige stonework. At the same time, lighting, tone and saturation vary prodigiously. The Impressionists long ago noted the relativity of colour, depending on time of day and atmospheric conditions; readers of a scholarly work on architecture do not require further demonstration. On the contrary, in the interests of intelligibility, the task of the layout artist is...

Multilingualism and the City: The Construction of Urban Identities in Dakar (Senegal)

AbstractAlthough place and language are two key elements in the composition of social identities, they are often studied in separate academic enterprises. This article brings them together, and examines their role in the construction of multiple urban identities. Analyzing how urbanites in Dakar shape their identities, I illustrate how linguistic and geographical criteria contribute to the formation of “we” versus “they” alliances, which in turn produce a specific sense of spatiality. Examining the case of the suburban neighborhood of Yoff, I show how residents construct fluid identities that range from “urbanites” to “village people,” each one of which is linked to a particular linguistic and cultural context. This article contributes to an understanding of how life in a multilingual city like Dakar offers a broad choice of identities that urban resident employ and maneuver on a daily level.

Transforming urban landscapes: soccer fields as sites of urban sociability in the agglomeration of Dakar

Vacant spaces in urban landscapes are not so much ‘empty’ places reserved for future constructions, but rather provide arenas for social and cultural practices which transform the vacant plots into sites with multiple functions and meaning. The example of neighbourhood youth clubs in the agglomeration of Pikine/Guédiawaye, a fast growing suburban area of Dakar (Senegal), demonstrates how young people use the ever decreasing number of ‘empty’ spaces in the city for various purposes and in particular as soccer fields. These soccer fields serve as platforms for the construction of urban identities, conflicts and sociability where dreams and desires of urban youth are reflected. The practice of using a field can have spatial, social, and imaginative implications. The erection of simple goalposts or the construction of a whole stadium both change the spatial dimensions of the urban environment and influence the practices performed on a specific site. What is more, by using symbols and signs, the social and cultural practices of young people go even beyond the spatial limits of a site and produce not only visible, but also invisible urban landscapes.