Sergi Valera

URBAN SOCIAL IDENTITY AND SUSTAINABILITY BARCELONA’S OLYMPIC VILLAGE

One of the most recent fields of investigation in environmental psychology focuses on the relationship between human behavior and management of environmental resources, aspects related to what is known today as sustainable human development. For the authors, this kind of behavior is linked to the relation that people establish with particular environments, specifically, the processes of socioenvironmental identity that condition the people-environment relationship. The authors present the results of a study conducted in the Olympic Village of Barcelona. The urban social identity of residents was analyzed, focusing on three main factors: identification-satisfaction, image of the neighborhood, and perceived social homogeneity. These three factors were analyzed in relation to a series of items in the initial questionnaire referring to proenvironmental behavior, representation of particular natural resources, and environmental attitudes. The authors expected the answers to these questions would differ significantly according to the degree of identification of residents with their neighborhood.

Estudio de la relación entre el espacio simbólico urbano y los procesos de identidad social

ResumenEl presente trabajo describe y analiza las dimensiones simbolicas del espacio a partir de la definicion conceptual de espacio simbolico urbano. Se enfatizan especialmente las implicaciones del concepto en los procesos de identidad social asociada al entorno, asi como la necesidad de contemplar los aspectos simbolicos en el analisis de los entornos urbanos y sus implicaciones metodologicas. Asimismo se presenta una investigacion empirica centrada en un barrio de Barcelona a partir de una triple aproximacion: socio-historica (analisis documental), cuantitativa (encuesta y analisis estadistico) y cualitativa (grupos de discusion y analisis de contenido). Los resultados muestran la relevancia del barrio en la configuracion de la identidad social y el papel de determinados espacios en la configuracion y mantenimiento de dicha identidad.

The Role of Place Identity in the Perception, Understanding, and Design of Built Environments

Description: In an era of globalization, where the progressive deterioration of local values is a dominating characteristic, identity is seen as a fundamental need that encompasses all aspects of human life. One of these identities relates to place and the physical environment. Place identity is concerned with a set of ideas about place and identity from the perspective of a wide range of disciplines. Mainly, it refers to the meaning and importance of places for their inhabitants and users. Readers of this e-book will gain an insight on the role of identity as a basis for the perception, experience, and appreciation of the form of built structures. This e-book explains knowledge in relation to place identity, focusing on peoples identity, and those factors that play a significant role in this process. Most of all, it enables to gain further insight about place identity with regard to global and local contexts, and across multifaceted and multicultural societies. The theme is approached from a number of disciplines that include environmental psychology, philosophy, urban sociology, geography, urban planning, urban design, architecture and landscape architecture.

Displacing xeno-racism: The discursive legitimation of native supremacy through everyday accounts of ‘urban insecurity’:

Socio-cultural approaches to fear of crime have suggested that responses to questionnaires may channel broader social attitudes towards other culturally-related topics which also shape the public meaning of ‘crime’, such as immigration. Building on this idea, this article uses a discourse analytic framework to examine how xeno-racist ideas, claims and positions are metonymically worked through everyday opinions about ‘urban insecurity’ as a crime-related construct. The analysis of open-ended interviews with ordinary citizens in Barcelona shows that the position of a ‘threatening Other’, typically afforded by the insecurity narrative, is pervasively constructed in xeno-racial terms, whether explicitly or by implication, but is rhetorically rejected on the narrative grounds of its alleged criminal acts. This xeno-racial version of the criminalized Other is itself managed in interaction as a sensitive topic through a set of deracialization strategies that displace rejection from the language of immigration towards culturally contiguous languages of incivilities, cultural differences and socioeconomic disadvantage. The article deepens the ideological versatility of discourses that subtly warrant the structural privilege of ‘natives’ vis-a-vis ‘immigrants’, thereby legitimizing a tenacious system of native supremacy.

Place attachment, place identity and residential mobility in undergraduate students

Abstract This study examines how patterns of residential mobility affect place attachment and identity. In accordance with Hernández, Hidalgo, Salazar-Laplace and Hess (2007), among other contributions which have approached the relationship between these concepts (Knez, 2005; Kyle, Graefe and Manning, 2005; Jorgensen and Stedman, 2001; Lalli, 1992), place attachment is considered an affective bond to a space, and place identity a subcomponent of identity. People frequently live in different cities throughout their lives, even different cities at the same time, dwelling in one city and working in another, or studying in a different city from their weekend or holiday residence in the case of undergraduate students. The main goal of this study is to find out how these patterns of residential mobility affect place identity and attachment, and to contrast the relationship between these two concepts. In order to explore this area, a questionnaire was applied to a sample of 666 undergraduate students in Barcelona (Spain) with different residential mobility patterns to confirm the two-factor structure of the proposed instrument and answer other questions regarding the neighbourhood, city and region of residence during term time. Our results support the hypothesis that residential mobility, in terms of higher or lower mobility regarding the place of residence during term time, affects place attachment and identity differently in the three levels of environment analyzed

Apego al lugar, identidad de lugar y movilidad residencial en estudiantes de grado

Resumen En este estudio se examina cómo inciden los patrones de movilidad residencial en el apego al lugar y la identidad de lugar. De acuerdo con Hernández, Hidalgo, Salazar-Laplace y Hess (2007), entre otras aportaciones que han abordado la relación entre estos conceptos (Knez, 2005; Kyle, Graefe y Manning, 2005; Jorgensen y Stedman, 2001; Lalli, 1992), consideramos el apego al lugar como un vínculo afectivo con el espacio y la identidad de lugar como un componente de la identidad. Con frecuencia las personas viven en diferentes ciudades a lo largo de su vida, incluso en diferentes ciudades al mismo tiempo, viviendo en una ciudad y trabajando en otra, o estudiando en una ciudad diferente de su lugar de residencia los fines de semana o periodos vacacionales en el caso de estudiantes universitarios. El objetivo principal de este estudio es el de conocer los efectos de estos patrones de movilidad residencial en la identidad y el apego a los lugares, además de contrastar la relación de estos dos conceptos. Para ello se aplicó un cuestionario a una muestra de 666 estudiantes universitarios, con diferentes patrones de movilidad residencial, con el fin de confirmar la estructura con dos factores del instrumento propuesto y responder al resto de interrogantes en relación al barrio, la ciudad y la región de residencia durante el curso. Los resultados permiten mantener la hipótesis de que la movilidad residencial, en términos de mayor o menor movilidad en torno al lugar de residencia durante el curso, incide de manera diferente en el apego y la identidad de lugar en los tres niveles de entornos analizados

Apego al lugar, identidad de lugar, sentido de comunidad y participación en un contexto de renovación urbana

Resumen Este artículo se centra en la participación de vecinos en los asuntos locales (actividades en el barrio, implicación en entidades locales, pertenencia a grupos vecinales) para explicar los vínculos socioespaciales (apego al lugar, identidad de lugar y sentido de comunidad) que ocurren a nivel de barrio. La relación de la participación con el apego al lugar y el sentido de comunidad es explorada en barrios en los que se está llevando a cabo un proceso participativo de regeneración urbana inserto en el programa “Quiero mi barrio” promovido por el Ministerio de Vivienda y Urbanismo chileno. Se seleccionaron cinco barrios (Valparaíso e Illapel, Chile), en los que se aplicaron escalas de apego al lugar, identidad de lugar, sentido de comunidad y participación a una muestra de 995 personas. Los resultados muestran que la participación local está relacionada con el apego al lugar a través del sentido de comunidad.

Influence of environmental perception of the neighbourhood on place attachment: The impact of the physical care of the neighbourhood

Abstract The present study examines the influence of perception of neighbourhood crowding, noise, danger, and physical care on neighbourhood attachment. To this end, a total of496 Spanish students from Barcelona and La Laguna participate in this study. In order to control for the variable time of residence, only natives of the neighbourhood were selected as participants, completing an anonymous self-reporting questionnaire. A Path Analysis was applied using perception of environmental factors of the neighbourhood as predictive variables and neighbourhood attachment as criteria variable. The results show that the perceptions of physical care and of danger in the neighbourhood are the variables that directly influence attachment. The implications of the results are discussed in terms of intervention for enhancing care behaviours in the neighbourhood.

Estudio de la identidad social urbana en un barrio de nueva creación. El caso de la Villa Olímpica de Barcelona

ResumenEl articulo se centra en el papel de los entornosfisicos en la configuracion de la identidad social en personas y grupos. Se revisa la literatura existente incidiendo especialmente en los conceptos de identidad social urbana y espacio simbolico urbano, aplicandose estos conceptos al analisis del surgimiento de identidad social entre los habitantes de la Villa Olimpica de Barcelona. Los datos de un cuestionario administrado a 295 personas del barrio permiten constatar una identificacion con el barrio fundamentada en una imagen preconfigurada de la zona mas que en un proceso de construccion socialpropia de una identidad de barrio. La corta historia, la composicion social, el tipo de estructura y paisaje urbano y los mecanismos de apropiacion espacial como precursores de identidad estructuran las conclusiones del estudio.

Evaluating the uses and environmental characteristics of 40 public parks and squares in Barcelona by means of systematic observation / Evaluación de los usos y características ambientales de 40 parques y plazas en Barcelona mediante observación sistemática

Abstract This paper presents an ad hoc instrument for the observation and recording of public space usage based on the combination of field formats and category systems. The EXOdES (Observational Examination of Space) instrument was applied to the analysis of 40 public spaces in the city of Barcelona as part of the collaboration agreement established with the Barcelona City Department of Prevention Services. It describes the theoretical foundations on which the research conducted is based, especially those pertaining to the social quality of public spaces, as well as the theories generated around the concept of public insecurity. In turn, it advocates the role of observational methodology as a valid instrument in psychosocial research, especially when analysing the dynamics of public urban spaces. The results show certain characteristics of the patterns of usage of the public spaces studied based on the analysis of differences in terms of the gender, age and seemingly immigrant/native origin of users, as well as the diversity of uses found and the influence of environmental variables.