scholarly journals Change and Continuity in the Urban Semiosphere of Post-Soviet Kharkiv

2020 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 55-104
Author(s):  
Svitlana Malykhina
Keyword(s):  
Urban Space ◽  
Collective Identity ◽  
Community Building ◽  
Public Spaces ◽  
Street Art ◽  
Soviet Period ◽  
Linguistic Landscape ◽  
Multimodal Approach ◽  
The Past ◽  
Urban Vernacular

The paper studies change and continuity in the urban semiosphere of Kharkiv in the post-Maidan period, focusing on themes such as the interplay of languages, street art, toponyms, and the significance of political, ideological, commercial, and artistic discourses in the urban space. The urban vernacular of Kharkiv is examined via the concept of the palimpsest that helps to expose the process of acceptance or rejection of the past, and to assess how things are remembered and forgotten through the tropes of the old narrative that were scrapped and replaced with new ones. The analysis of the linguistic landscape in this study focuses on a broader, more inclusive set of components that are part of public spaces, such as street graffiti metaphors and reactions to the text on graffiti. Thus, а multimodal approach is essential to provide deeper meanings and interpretations of public spaces. To examine the complex linguistic landscape, I bring together a representative collection of public signage that mirrors the dynamics of different historical, linguistic, and ideological factors that shape the contemporary Ukrainian identity, along with the too obvious and simultaneous presence within it of markers of the collective identity from the Soviet period. The juxtaposition of overlapping narratives provides a means to discuss the city’s community-building efforts. My paper introduces a few familiar cases of how post-Soviet urban dwellers have shaped social spaces.

POST-SOVIET TRANSFORMATIONS OF PUBLIC SPACES IN LITHUANIA: CASES OF ŽIRMŪNAI AND LAZDYNAI RESIDENTIAL DISTRICTS / TARYBINIO LAIKOTARPIO VIEŠŲJŲ ERDVIŲ TRANSFORMACIJOS LIETUVOJE. VILNIAUS ŽIRMŪNŲ IR LAZDYNŲ ATVEJIS

2012 ◽  
Vol 36 (3) ◽  
pp. 209-221 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tomas Grunskis ◽  
Matas Šiupšinskas
Keyword(s):  
Public Space ◽  
Urban Space ◽  
Negative Impact ◽  
Public Spaces ◽  
Spatial Development ◽  
Soviet Period

The article deals with the question of public space transformations during the last two decades in Lithuania. It is the part of broader research of the topic. Authors focus on the issue of main public spaces in Žirmūnai and Lazdynai residential districts in Vilnius, which are under the process of structural and spatial development. The article also analizes the problem of post-Soviet urban space quality and its transformations, as well as raises the question of preservation practices of urban (modernistic) heritage from the Soviet period. Authors analize and expose systems of public spaces and their hierarchy in these districts, which have been created according to modernistic principles and now are considered as highly valuable. Structural, compositional, functional and spacial developments of these spaces are analized in detail evaluating negative impact of such developments on the quality of modernistic urban space. Santrauka Straipsnyje aptariama tarybinio laikotarpio viešųjų erdvių kaita per pastarąjį dvidešimtmetį. Jame telkiamas dėmesys į Vilniaus Žirmūnų ir Lazdynų gyvenamųjų rajonų pagrindines viešąsias erdves bei jose esančius visuomeninius kompleksus. Tekste analizuojamos ir apibūdinamos tarybinio laikotarpio urbanistinės erdvės kokybinės kaitos ir urbanistinio paveldo teisinės apsaugos klausimas. Taip pat įvardijamos ir analizuojamos šių gyvenamųjų rajonų viešųjų erdvių sistemos bei jų elementų hierarchijos. Tekste detaliai analizuojama šių viešųjų erdvių kaita urbanistinės struktūros, tūrinės erdvinės kompozicijos ir funkciniu požiūriais. Keliama urbanistinės erdvės, kaip paveldo ir apsaugos objekto, problema.

scholarly journals Appropriation and political expression in urban public spaces

2016 ◽  
Vol 18 (2) ◽  
pp. 291 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sergio Luis Abrahão
Keyword(s):  
Urban Space ◽  
Public Spaces ◽  
Urban Spaces ◽  
Past Century ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
The Past ◽  
Democratic Regimes ◽  
Totalitarian Regimes ◽  
Physical Spaces ◽  
The Relationship

There are many, diverse issues that determine the relationship between citizens and their public urban spaces and, consequently, the significance that these spaces acquire for society as a whole. In totalitarian regimes however, the use of streets and parks as places of protest and resistance against sequestered freedom is not permitted. However, in democratic regimes, the reflections and discourse of architects, urbanists, researchers and policy makers regarding the manner in which public urban space is (or should be) appropriated by the population, has revealed a systematic reinterpretation of these spaces. Indeed, ever since the last decades of the past century, it has become recurrent to associate these physical spaces with the space of political realization. The intention of the present article is to bring the meaning of this association into debate, above all due to the insurgencies from certain segments of our population, which have taken place over recent years, manifestly in the streets, parks and avenues of our cities.

scholarly journals The square, the monument and the re-configurative power of art in postmigrant public spaces

2021 ◽  
pp. 235-264
Author(s):  
Anne Ring Petersen
Keyword(s):  
Urban Space ◽  
Collective Identity ◽  
Public Art ◽  
Public Spaces ◽  
Public Park ◽  
The Public ◽  
National Imagination ◽  
National Heritage ◽  
Artistic Interventions

This chapter explores how art in public spaces shapes, and is shaped by, disagreements and conflicts resulting from the need to tackle »togetherness in difference« (Ien Ang), and how contemporary artistic practices play out in postmigrant public spaces, understood as plural domains of human encounter impacted by former and ongoing migration, and by new forms of nationalism. The chapter focuses on two art projects in Copenhagen, Denmark. The first one is The Red Square, a part of the public park Superkilen in the multicultural Nørrebro district. Designed by the artist group Superflex (in collaboration with architects from Bjarke Ingels Group and Topotek1), Superkilen opened in 2012. The second project is Jeannette Ehlers and La Vaughn Belle's collaboration on the sculpture I Am Queen Mary. Installed outside an old colonial Warehouse in Copenhagen harbour in 2018, it is the first monument in the country to commemorate Danish colonialism and complicity in the transatlantic slave trade. Borrowing a term from Chantal Mouffe, these projects could be characterized as »agonistic« interventions into public urban space. The chapter argues that they may provide us with some much-needed answers to the important question of the much debated yet crucial role of public art in democratic societies, particularly how works of art may form a possible loophole of escape from dominant discourses by openly contesting, or subtly circumventing, monocultural understandings of national heritage and identity, thereby helping us to imagine national and urban community otherwise, i.e. as postmigrant communities. The chapter examines what the re-configurative power of art might accomplish in postmigrant public spaces by considering the following questions: How can public art open up a social and national imagination pervaded by anxieties about (post)migration to other ways of thinking about diversity and collective identity? Furthermore, is it possible to identify a common pattern - i.e. a particular postmigrant strategy - that underpins and interconnects various types of artistic interventions into public spaces and debates, which, on the surface, present themselves as radically different kinds of projects?

scholarly journals The Pandemic City: Urban Issues in the Time of COVID-19

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (6) ◽  
pp. 3295
Author(s):  
Lina Martínez ◽  
John Rennie Short
Keyword(s):  
Urban Space ◽  
Public Spaces ◽  
Health Access ◽  
Sustainable Cities ◽  
Urban Economies ◽  
The Past ◽  
Urban Issues ◽  
The Way

Pandemics have shaped the way cities are planned and configured. Throughout history, cities have evolved to solve problems of sanitation, hygiene, and health access while providing space and opportunities for the urban dwellers. COVID-19 will have significant implications in the way cities are planned. This recent crisis highlights a number of issues. This paper looks at the context for the pandemic and then reviews studies and debates in four areas: transformations in the configuration of public spaces, transportation, urban connectivities, and urban economies. This pandemic, like other similar episodes in the past, is forcing us to rethink the nature of urban space and may be an opportunity to plan for safer, more sustainable cities.

scholarly journals HISTORICAL MEMORY AND ETHNICITY IN THE URBAN ARCHITECTURAL ENVIRONMENT AS A FACTOR OF SOCIAL IDENTITY CONSTRUCTION IN THE CAPITALS OF THE RUSSIAN FEDERATION REPUBLICS ON THE EXAMPLE OF IZHEVSK AND SARANSK

2019 ◽  
Vol 3 (4) ◽  
pp. 409-429 ◽  
Author(s):  
O.A. Bogatova ◽  
E.N. Guseva
Keyword(s):  
Urban Environment ◽  
Urban Space ◽  
Identity Politics ◽  
Historical Memory ◽  
Regional Identity ◽  
Public Spaces ◽  
Soviet Period ◽  
Environment Design ◽  
Research Perspective ◽  
Verbal Language

The article analyzes the social practices of memorization and ethnicization in the process of post-Soviet transformation of the architectural landscape of the capitals of the Finno-Ugric republics, by the republican elites with the aim of constructing a stable regional identity of the capital’s population on the example of the Republic of Mordovia and the Udmurt Republic. The purpose of the study is to identify the basic social technologies for using the cultural and symbolic aspects of the urban architectural environment, including the historical and cultural heritage, and the newly created elements for the purpose of “memorial management” and to give ethnic flavor, the trends in their evolution and the main results of using such technologies in the post-Soviet period. Based on the data of standardized observation, the intensity of the concentration of ethnicization of the urban architectural environment is compared, the main places of concentration of signs of ethnicity and historical memory in the urban space of Izhevsk and Saransk, common features, strategic features, results and limitations in the research perspective of sociological concepts of identity politics, historical politics, city sociology, public spaces, “places” and “non-places” are identified. The main verbal (language of signs, slogans), monumental (sculpture, commemorative signs, architectural decoration of buildings, stairs, fountains, etc.), visual (social advertising, ethnic symbols in illuminations, holiday decoration of buildings) means of ethnicization of urban environment design are described, as well as architectural images that indicate alternative ethnic strategies for the formation of the capital’s identity. The general trends and problems associated with the redevelopment of the urban environment and the transformation of “arrogant” Soviet public spaces into places of recreation and communication are revealed. Among the limitations of the effectiveness of the historical policy and the policy of ethnicization of urban spaces, the author considers the conscious implementation of alternative strategies for the formation of urban identity by various social actors, the binding of iconic architectural objects to “empty” pseudo-public spaces or sports facilities that are not “anchor” objects, the creation of symbolic transit spaces in the status of “non-places”, the visual ethnic specificity of which is not available to those who use them.

scholarly journals Urban Connective Action: The Case of Events Hosted in Public Space

2020 ◽  
Vol 5 (4) ◽  
pp. 252-266
Author(s):  
David McGillivray ◽  
Severin Guillard ◽  
Emma Reid
Keyword(s):  
Public Space ◽  
Digital Media ◽  
Urban Space ◽  
Public Spaces ◽  
Urban Public Space ◽  
The Past ◽  
Twitter Data ◽  
New Public ◽  
Connective Action

In the past decade, significant transformations have influenced the governance of urban public spaces. There has also been a growth in new public spheres associated with digital media networks, informing and influencing the production and regulation of urban space. In this article, we explore the role of digital and social media as a form of connective action supporting public campaigns about the privatisation and erosion of public space in the Scottish city of Edinburgh. We draw on analysis of Twitter data, interviews and observations of offline events to illustrate how a broad coalition of actors utilise online and offline tactics to contest the takeover of public space, confirming that that the virtual and the physical are not parallel realms but continuously intersecting social realities. Finally, we reflect on the extent to which digital media-enabled connective action can influence the orientation of urban controversies debates and lead to material change in the way urban public space is managed and regulated.

scholarly journals Miesto erdvė ir subkultūrų dinamika Klaipėdoje 1991–2010 m. (1)

2012 ◽  
Vol 30 (1) ◽  
pp. 165-209
Author(s):  
Liutauras Kraniauskas
Keyword(s):  
Urban Space ◽  
Pop Culture ◽  
Public Spaces ◽  
Urban Spaces ◽  
Soviet Period ◽  
Social Changes ◽  
Hybrid Identities ◽  
Theoretical Assumptions ◽  
Ritual Spaces ◽  
Post Soviet Period

Santrauka. Tekste svarstomas klausimas apie miesto erdvių sąsajas su subkultūrų raišką. Pasitelkus dviejų dešimtmečių empirinę medžiagą, bandoma rekonstruoti Klaipėdos muzikinių subkultūrų dinamiką posovietiniu laikotarpiu. Šioje studijoje siekiama suderinti britų kultūros studijų įžvalgas apie hegemoninės jaunimo kategorijos santykį su subkultūromis, Kevino Hetheringtono ekspresyvios tapatybės teoriją ir Michelio Maffesoli teorines įžvalgas apie šiuolaikinio socialumo formas. Visos teorinės prielaidos susijusios su erdvės ir tapatybės santykio pažinimo klausimu. Posovietinio laikotarpio Klaipėdos subkultūrinių erdvių tyrimas atskleidžia, kad 1991–1996 m. galima stebėti subkultūrų subordinaciją hegemoninei jaunimo kategorijai, stilių hibridiškumą ir subkultūros suartėjimą su popkultūra. 1997–2002 m. subkultūros pradeda trauktis iš viešosios erdvės, jaunimo laisvalaikio vietų ir socialinės kontrolės akiračio, kas vedė link naujų erdvių paieškos ir jų pritaikymo subkultūrinės tapatybės raiškai. 2003–2010 m. laikotarpiui būdinga subkultūrų diferenciacija, ideologinis išsigryninimas ir ritualinių erdvių uždarumas. Įvardinti subkultūrų dinamikos procesai interpretuojami platesniame urbanistinių pokyčių kontekste. Šiame žurnalo numeryje spausdinama pirmoji straipsnio dalis.Pagrindiniai žodžiai: subkultūra, jaunimas, miesto erdvės, subkultūrinė tapatybė, ideologija, Klaipėda, posovietinis laikotarpis, socialiniai pokyčiai.Keywords: subculture, youth, urban space, subcultural identity, ideology, Klaipeda, post-Soviet, social changes. ABSTRACTURBAN SPACES AND SUBCULTURAL DYNAMICS IN KLAIPEDA IN 1991–2010The main issue discussed in the article is relationship between urban spaces and subcultural identity: what empirical analysis of subcultural places say about social processes in a city? The present study is empirical reconstruction of the dynamics of musical subcultures as spatial phenomena in a post-Soviet city (Klaipeda, Lithuania) and covers two decades of rapid urban changes. In our study of post-Soviet period we follow Marxists interpretation proposed by CCCS about relationship between hegemonic youth category and subculture, apply Kevin Hetherington’s theory of expressive identity, and empirically explore Michel Maffesoli’s ideas about changing sociality. All theoretical assumptions differently focus on relations of space and identity.The study locates three periods of subcultural dynamics in Klaipeda. In 1991–1996 subcultures were subordinated to hegemonic youth category; pop culture and subcultures were not differentiated; the different styles were mixed in hybrid identities. In 1997–2002 subcultures leave public spaces and escapes from social control, what leads them to exploration and appropriation of new spaces for ritual performances. 2003–2010 are marked by subcultural differentiation, ideological purification of subcultural identity and seclusion of ritual spaces. Identified processes are discussed in a wider context of urban changes. In this issue of the journal is published only the first part of the study.

scholarly journals SELFIE-ARCHITECTURE OF TYUMEN

2021 ◽  
Vol 6 (7) ◽  
pp. 62-72
Author(s):  
A. Lukash ◽  
A. Panfilov
Keyword(s):  
Urban Space ◽  
Urban Landscape ◽  
Human Life ◽  
Public Spaces ◽  
Street Art ◽  
Urban Street ◽  
New Meanings ◽  
The World ◽  
The Moment ◽  
The City

Architecture is an integral part human life. It influences the psyche and health of people, causing certain associations. Architectural objects are often captured through the lens of cameras. Selfie culture has become a powerful tool for promoting new meanings and designing modern public spaces. The need for selfie backgrounds is increasing. This encourages artists and architects to create interesting solutions for urban space. There are examples of urban street art in many cities around the world and in Russia. In Tyumen, there are memorable objects for visitors and its residents, which in turn are urban landmarks and are responsible for the strategic and economic development of the city. They are recognizable, stand out against the background of a monotonous environment and help to navigate the urban landscape. As a result of conducted research, the nformation is obtained on the most popular places for photos in the city of Tyumen. Territories can be divided into the following categories: environment, object and background. An architectural structure that meets all the criteria and is a key symbol of the city is selected from the objects considered. The selfie architecture of Tyumen is an integral part of the culture of today. However, at the moment in Tyumen there are no popular truly utilitarian spaces intended only for photos as it happens in other cities.

Connecting visual presents to archival pasts in multilingual California

2016 ◽  
Vol 2 (3) ◽  
pp. 223-246 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert W. Train
Keyword(s):  
Public Space ◽  
Language Use ◽  
Public Spaces ◽  
Language And Identity ◽  
Linguistic Landscape ◽  
Ethical Implications ◽  
The Past ◽  
Spanish Missions ◽  
The World ◽  
Junipero Serra

Linguistic Landscape (LL) research has emerged as an approach to document and analyze language use in public spaces in present-day multilingual California and elsewhere in the world. This paper extends the conceptual and methodological frame of LL beyond the visual, ethnographic present. It seeks to create dialogue between text-oriented archival research into historical contexts of language and identity, and the present-oriented ethnographic focus of LL grounded in current sociolinguistic, applied linguistic, anthropological, and educational research. Building upon research into monuments and memorialization, this paper develops “memorization” to conceptualize the multilayered historicity, intertextuality and materiality that commit to public memory linguistic, political, and educational discourses — with their constitutive ideologies, practices, and policies — designed to “make the past present for the future” in public space. This paper offers an interdisciplinary perspective on the memorization of the colonial Spanish missions in California and the 2015 canonization of their founder, Junípero Serra. Several methodological opportunities and challenges for LL are discussed for critically connecting present and past landscapes of multilingualism, and their future ethical implications.

scholarly journals The capibaribe park project, Recife: using the river to reinvent the city

2020 ◽  
Vol 55 (3) ◽  
pp. 331-353
Author(s):  
Fabiano Rocha Diniz ◽  
Luiz Vieira Filho ◽  
Roberto Montezuma
Keyword(s):  
Urban Space ◽  
Public Spaces ◽  
Urban Spaces ◽  
The Past ◽  
City Hall ◽  
Research And Innovation ◽  
Coherent Image ◽  
The World ◽  
The City

Recife is an amphibious city whose urban development does not value its rivers. In the past, the city’s main watercourse, the river Capibaribe, was understood to play a key role in structuring urban spaces and providing connectivity. Since then, this understanding has dwindled, and the resulting situation is a cause of great concern. Recife City has turned its back on the banks of its rivers and neglected both their capacity to smooth and shape urban space, and their potential to create a coherent image of the city. Recife is one of those cities in the world that are most vulnerable to climate change, ranking 16th in the list of world hotspots. In order to confront these challenges and rethink the role of the river that runs in the heart of Recife, researchers, architects, engineers, and sociologists from Research and Innovation for Cities — Universidade Federal de Pernambuco (INCITI-UFPE) were invited by the Recife City Hall to draw up plans for a park stretching along the river’s banks. Capibaribe Park Project attempts to answer one key question: How can we use the river to transform the city? The park project is based on a structural approach to landscape and is guided by the precepts of sustainability and regeneration of public spaces, in line with the emerging paradigm that combines a cross-disciplinary and cross-sector approach with water-sensitive design and social participation. The present article presents an overview of the main characteristics and development of this project, its theoretical and methodological underpinnings, its contribution to society, and the results achieved so far. It shows how, in addition to the planned park, the project also envisages the installation of a much more extensive system of parks, as a first stage towards the creation of park-city by the 500th anniversary of the foundation of Recife, in 2037.

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