Chernivtsi’s Squares and Monuments in the Context of Distinctive Buko- vinian Identity, Cultural Heritages and Urban Historical Memory

2020 ◽  
Vol 24 (1) ◽  
pp. 45-77
Author(s):  
Valentyna Bohatyrets ◽  
Liubov Melnychuk
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Heritage ◽  
Urban Space ◽  
Urban Landscape ◽  
Historical Memory ◽  
Interdisciplinary Approach ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Politics Of Memory ◽  
Central Eastern Europe ◽  
Interdisciplinary Field ◽  
The City

Since the twentieth century, the interdisciplinary field of ‘memory studies’ has become especially topical and drawn upon a variety of theoretical perspectives, while offering a plethora of empirical case studies exploring the politics of memory and urban space, cultural heritage and cultural identity that mould a space’s distinctiveness. This study draws on a comparative analysis to theoretically prove and develop a multifaceted memory of Chernivtsi’s significantly transformed and enriched urban landscape through an interdisciplinary approach involving various methods and instruments for handling the essential societal resources of history, memory and identity. The city of Chernivtsi and the region of Bukovina, historically part of Central Eastern Europe and geo-strategically the heart of Europe, has recently strengthened its voice in becoming culturally and economically bound to the European Union. As a well-preserved city ruled, at different times, by the Habsburg Empire (1900-1918), Romania (1918-1939) and the USSR (1940/41-1991), Chernivtsi (Czernowitz, Cernăuţi, Chernovtsy) serves as a case study for exploring the human fingerprints of every epoch. The city’s architectural diversity offers testimony as to how Chernivtsi’s urban society preserved its unique landscape of identity, embodied in a patchwork of ethnic, linguistic and confessional affiliations, while integrating representational claims and moderating its space. This study analyses the policies and practices of these three epochs in Chernivtsi’s history, in terms of how the city attempted to promote, develop and preserve its cultural heritage, while preserving the collective memory and shaping supranational identity.

scholarly journals Grass-Roots Initiatives and Bottom-Up Musealisation Mechanisms in Urban Space: The Case of Heraklion Crete

Heritage ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 2 (3) ◽  
pp. 1912-1926
Author(s):  
Konstantina Nikolopoulou
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Heritage ◽  
Public Space ◽  
Urban Space ◽  
Urban Landscape ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Tourist Destination ◽  
Bottom Up ◽  
Grass Roots ◽  
Grass Roots Initiatives ◽  
The City

Heraklion is gradually transforming into the newest tourist destination in Crete, which is one of the most popular island destinations in Greece. The regional statutory and local tourist bodies aim to develop Heraklion as a destination per se, overcoming the “gateway to the rest of the island” identity that the city currently holds. At the same time, grass-roots initiatives are active in the city context, defending public space and urban cultural heritage, in idiosyncratic, bottom-up ways. This paper investigates the role undertaken by three such initiatives, currently active in Heraklion, to better comprehend their possible impact on the urban landscape and cultural heritage, within this gradually developing tourist landscape. The structure, aims and vision of the initiatives were documented through semi-structured interviews. Their actions, despite being diverse, are compared to the wider activity of similar initiatives in Greece, especially against neoliberal politics, culminating in defending public space, activating bottom-up musealisation mechanisms and participating in urban design in their own ways.

scholarly journals The Politics of Memory: Constructing Heritage and Globalization in Havana, Cuba

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gabriel Fuentes ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Urban Space ◽  
Foreign Currency ◽  
International Tourism ◽  
Special Period ◽  
Politics Of Memory ◽  
History And Memory ◽  
Fidel Castro ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
Global And Local ◽  
The City

Since granted world heritage status by the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) in 1982, Old Havana has been the site of contested heritage practices. Critics consider UNESCO’s definition of the 143 hectare walled city center a discriminatory delineation strategy that primes the colonial core for tourist consumption at the expense of other parts of the city. To neatly bound Havana’s collective memory/history within its “old” core, they say, is to museumize the city as ”frozen in time,” sharply distinguishing the “historic” from the “vernacular.”While many consider heritage practices to resist globalization, in Havana they embody a complex entanglement of global and local forces. The Soviet Union’s collapse in 1991 triggered a crippling recession during what Fidel Castro called a“Special Period in a Time of Peace.” In response, Castro redeveloped international tourism—long demonized by the Revolution as associated with capitalist “evils”—in order to capture the foreign currency needed to maintain the state’s centralized economy. Paradoxically, the re-emergence of international tourism in socialist Cuba triggered similar inequalities found in pre-Revolutionary Havana: a dual-currency economy, government-owned retail (capturing U.S. dollars at the expense of Cuban Pesos), and zoning mechanisms to “protect” Cubanos from the “evils” of the tourism, hospitality, and leisure industries. Using the tropes of “heritage”and “identity,” preservation practices fueled tourism while allocating the proceeds toward urban development, using capitalism to sustain socialism. This paper briefly traces the geopolitics of 20th century development in Havana, particularly in relation to tourism. It then analyzes tourism in relation to preservation / restoration practices in Old Havana using the Plaza Vieja (Old Square)—Old Havana’ssecond oldest and most restored urban space—as a case study. In doing so, it exposes preservation/ restoration as a dynamic and politically complex practice that operates across scales and ideologies, institutionalizing history and memory as an urban design and identity construction strategy. The paper ends with a discussion on the implications of such practices for a rapidly changing Cuba.

scholarly journals URBAN STUDIES IN THE CONTEXT OF THEORIES OF VISUAL PRACTICES

2017 ◽  
pp. 93-97
Author(s):  
A. M. Tormakhova
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Studies ◽  
Urban Environment ◽  
Urban Space ◽  
Urban Studies ◽  
Urban Areas ◽  
Mutual Influence ◽  
Interdisciplinary Approach ◽  
Practical Significance ◽  
Monumental Architecture ◽  
The City

One of the leading trends in contemporary cultural studies is the appealto the field of visual. Thepurpose of the article is to investigate the range of problems associated withthe existence, functioning of various visual practices in the urban space and the disclosure of the specifics of communication carried out through their intermediation. In urban space, there are many forms, such as monumental architecture, urban sculpture, outdoor illumination, landscape art, street art, graffiti and others. These artifacts are the subject of cultural research within different disciplines - aesthetics, cultural studies, design, and art. It may be noted that in recentdecades, significant development gets such a direction as Urban Studies, in which the focus of research serves the city. The methodology of the study includes an appeal to an interdisciplinary approach that relies on the achievements of practical cultural studies, Urban studies,and aesthetics theory by Ukrainian and Western authors. Scientific novelty consists in analyzing the connection ofactual visual practices presented in the urban space and forming of Internet activity, which facilitates the mutual influence of these spheres one on another. The author noted that urban space is gradually becoming not only interactive, but also fully assuming the characteristics of WEB 2.0, which means active rethinking and transforming the environment, urban residents involvement in decision-making that becomes a norm of everyday life. City is a kind of text that reflects changing tastes, politicaland economic factors in visualform. Town and city public spaces play an important role in shaping the interaction within society. One of the pressing problems of practical cultural studies in general and urban areas in particular, should be integrated into organization of the urban environment and design the image of the city. The practical significance lies in the fact that the results of the research can beused in developing the urban sphere in particular and in actualizing the issue of organizing the urban environment and constructing the image of the city.

scholarly journals Cultural Memory and Urban Space in Shaping Cultural Identity

2019 ◽  
pp. 160-183
Author(s):  
Valentyna Bohatyrets ◽  
Liubov Melnychuk
Keyword(s):  
Urban Space ◽  
Cultural Memory ◽  
Urban Landscape ◽  
Late 20Th Century ◽  
The Past ◽  
Historical Archives ◽  
City Space ◽  
New Type ◽  
The City ◽  
Historic Cities

Nowadays, in the age of massive spatial transformations in the built environment, cities witness a new type of development, different in size, scale and momentum that has been thriving since late 20th century. Diverse transformation of historic cities under modernisation has led to concerns in terms of the space and time continuity disintegration and the preservation of historic cities. In a similar approach, we can state that city and city space do not only consist of present, they also consist of the past; they include the transformations, relations, values, struggles and tensions of the past. As it could be defined, space is the history itself. Currently, we would like to display how Chernivtsi cultural and architectural heritage is perceived and maintained in the course of its evolution. Noteworthy, Chernivtsi city is speculated a condensed human existence and vibes, with public urban space and its ascriptions are its historical archives and sacred memory. Throughout the history, CHERNIVTSI’s urban landscape has changed, while preserving its unique and distinctive spirit of diversity, multifacetedness and tolerance. The city squares of the Austrian, Romanian and Soviet epochs were crammed with statuary of royal elites and air of aristocracy, soviet leaders and a shade of patriotic obsession, symbolic animals and sacred piety – that eventually shaped its unique “Bukovynian supranational identity”. Keywords: Chernivtsi, cultural memory, memory studies, monuments, squares, identity.

scholarly journals Consuming heritage: counter-uses of the city and gentrification

2013 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 165-189 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rogerio Proença Leite
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Heritage ◽  
Social Relationships ◽  
Urban Space ◽  
Spatial Segregation ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
Urban Policies ◽  
Heritage Sites ◽  
Heritage Policy ◽  
The City ◽  
The Way

Based on research in the old Recife Quarter in the city of Recife, capital of Pernambuco state, Brazil, this study examines processes of gentrification in areas of heritage value. The article focuses on the way in which these urban policies have transformed cultural heritage into a commodity, and urban space into social relationships mediated by consumerism. I argue that heritage sites that undergo processes of gentrification create strong spatial segregation and generate an appropriation of space by the excluded population that takes the form of counter-uses, undermining the uses imagined by urban and heritage policy makers.

scholarly journals Textualities of the city – from the legibility of urban space towards social and natural others in planning

2016 ◽  
Vol 44 (1/2) ◽  
pp. 34-52 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tiit Remm
Keyword(s):  
Urban Space ◽  
Planning Process ◽  
Urban Landscape ◽  
Local Environment ◽  
Analytical Framework ◽  
City Centre ◽  
Semiotic System ◽  
Equal Degree ◽  
Moscow School ◽  
The City

‘Text’ has been a frequent notion in analytical conceptualizations of landscape and the city. It is mostly found in analyses of textual representations or suggestions concerning a metaphor of “reading” an (urban) landscape. In the Tartu- Moscow School of Semiotics the idea of the text of St. Petersburg has also been applied in analysing particular cities as organizing topics in literature and in culture more widely, but it has not happened to an equal degree in studies of actual urban spaces. The understanding of text as a semiotic system and mechanism is, however, more promising than revealed by these conceptions. Some potential can be made apparent by relating this textual paradigm to a more pragmatic understanding of the city and its planning. My project in this paper is to uncover an analytical framework focusing on the concepts of ‘text’, ‘textualization’ and ‘texting’ in studying the planning of urban environment. The paper observes the case of the urban planning process of the Tartu city centre in Estonia during 2010–2016, and is particularly concerned with the roles that urban nature has acquired in the process of this “textualization” of the local environment, societal ideals, practices and possible others.

Urban Communication

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Susan J. Drucker ◽  
Gary Gumpert
Keyword(s):  
Digital Media ◽  
Urban Landscape ◽  
Smart Cities ◽  
Physical World ◽  
Place And Space ◽  
Media Technologies ◽  
Urban Communication ◽  
Digital World ◽  
Interdisciplinary Field ◽  
The City

Cities themselves function as media of communication. They are places where messages are created, carried, and exchanged by structures, infrastructures, and people. Urbanity is an age-old phenomenon undergoing radical transformation as developing means of communication redefine traditional notions of place and space. Urban communication meshes population density, technology and social interaction. Urban communication, like urban studies, is an interdisciplinary field that provides a fresh perspective from which to view the city and its transformation. The communication lens offers valuable perspectives and methodologies for the examination of urban and suburban life. It conceptualizes the city as a complex environment of interpersonal interaction, a landscape of spaces and places that shape human behavior, and an intricate technological environment. The development of urban communication research and activities is traceable from the early works a diverse group of urbanists to more current research programs conducted by communication scholars. Urban communication foregrounds communication in the study of the urban landscape. The unique patterns and needs of urban dwellers and communities are examined in an age where cities are layered with media technologies. An increasing number of technologies enable information from the digital world to be layered onto the physical world through augmented realities, thereby altering the person–environment relationship by creating spaces in which users interact with their physical surroundings through digital media. The future of cities is increasingly influenced by media technology. Cities are global, connected, inclusive, livable, green, sustainable, mega, and smart. Cities have been identified as communicative cities. There are many ways of looking at communication and cities and the history and broad parameters of the growing area of urban communication.

The Vertical Space Problem

2013 ◽  
pp. 9-28 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nicholas Adam Perdue
Keyword(s):  
Urban Space ◽  
Urban Landscape ◽  
Large Population ◽  
Personal Space ◽  
Residential Patterns ◽  
Space Problem ◽  
The Social ◽  
Alternative Approaches ◽  
The City

Populations in contemporary cities are being measured, analyzed, or represented in less than optimal ways. Conventional methods of measuring density of populations in cities rely on calculating the number of people living within a bounded surface space. This approach fails to account for the multiple floor residential patterns of the contemporary urban landscape and exposes the vertical space problem in population analytics. To create an accurate representation of people in contemporary urban spaces, a move beyond the conventional conception of density is needed. This research aims to find a more appropriate solution to mapping humans in cities by employing a dasymetric method to represent the distribution of people in a city of vertical residential structures. The methodology creates an index to classify the amount of floor space for each person across the extent of the city, a metric called the personal space measure. The personal space measure is juxtaposed with the conventional population density measurements to provide a unique perspective on how population is concentrated across the urban space. The personal space metric demonstrates how improved metrics can be employed to better understand the social and structural landscape of cities. Chicago, with a large population and a high vertical extent, makes an ideal case study to develop a methodology to capture the phenomena of urban living in the 21st century and to explain alternative approaches to accurately and intelligently analyze the contemporary urban space.

scholarly journals Alma-Ata: some architectural narratives of the soviet city

2021 ◽  
Vol 134 (1) ◽  
pp. 10-21
Author(s):  
Z. B Abylkhozhin ◽  
◽  
I. Krupko ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Urban Space ◽  
Urban Studies ◽  
Historical Memory ◽  
Historical Narratives ◽  
Subject Field ◽  
Visual Narratives ◽  
Post War ◽  
Relationship Of ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
The City

This article explores some visual narratives of the architectural landscape of Alma-Ata city (modern Almaty). Historical narratives produced or studied by historians in the text are no less vividly and distinctly manifested in the visual sphere. In many ways, this can be attributed to the design of urban space and its architecture. Architecture not only directly depends on the socio-political, ideological, and symbolic regime, but often creates it. Being a product of the era, a zone of perception and reflection of its impulses, the architectural landscape of the city creates a socio-cultural space, which in turn forms the mental background for the inhabitants of this city. Knowledge about cities is a special subject field for comparative urban studies, including a culturalanthropological and ethnographic basis. The article attempts to describe the two main architectural narratives of the city of Almaty (Stalinist Empire style and Soviet modernism) and their projections in the space of historical memory, as well as the relationship of these narratives with the corresponding ideologies (imperial geopolitical ambitions of the USSR in the post-war period and the ideology of modernism of the 60-80s biennium). The problem of updating the cultural heritage of Soviet architecture in the historical memory of the Kazakh society is also posed.

scholarly journals TIGHT OR FLEXIBLE? THE DEGREE OF DETAIL OF LOCAL LAW REGULATIONS AND ITS IMPACT ON A QUALITY OF URBAN SPACE – SELECTED CASES FROM POZNAN

space&FORM ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 2020 (46) ◽  
pp. 165-186
Author(s):  
Wojciech Skórzewski ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Urban Space ◽  
Urban Landscape ◽  
Spatial Development ◽  
High Quality ◽  
Development Plans ◽  
Local Law ◽  
The One ◽  
The City

Local spatial development plans, are one of the most important urban landscaping tools. Their goal is, on the one hand, to protect urban space including, inter alia, prevention of creation of illconsidered developments, that are bad to the urban landscape, the environment or the local communities. For this purpose, there is a number of restrictions introduced into local spatial development plans. On the other hand, the role of local plans is also creating the space, so they should be conducive to projects with high-quality architecture, that are often unconventional and innovative, adding new value to the architectural landscape of the city, which could be blocked by too strict regulations. The trick is to create regulations in a way that can help reconcile that two goals.

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