Article Preview
TopCultural Identity
The experience of urban spaces is usually associated with a rational construction, even if subjective. It is in this fixed physical space that emerge processes and social practices with which we identify ourselves culturally (Hall, 2005), eventually translating into the “social space” of Lefebvre (1991).
Local identity arises intrinsically associated with the social space and the processes that occur, through the collective construction of local communities as well as their preservation by a collective memory (Castells, 2001). Hall (2005) also considers that the notion of social identity implies a collective dimension, in permanent construction, through cultural practices in constant (re) creation, and highlights the role of culture as critical action and social intervention.
This social identity, built collectively, generates innumerable images created by the various actors of these processes, giving rise to the “image of the city” of Kevin Lynch (2008). The image of the city, which reflects its immaterial patrimony, is thus associated with the processes of interaction that take place in its space, as Paulino says:
“(...) If on the one hand the intangible heritage appears dependent on a material space – a territory – full of meaning, or landscape that evokes this, the immaterial heritage always shows a relationship subject/area, even though both are subtext. (...) To consider the immaterial heritage as a solo element will result in decontextualization and, consequently, a loss of significance. (...)” (2010, p. 571, own translation)1