Image of Chisinau in its residents’ representations: urban versus rural
Image of Chisinau in its residents’ representations: urban versus rural

Summary/Abstract: The results of an empiric research of urban identity, carried out by the author among the residents of Chisinau, showed the importance of the rural component in the city image. The present article deals with the juxtaposition of urban and rural characteristics in the image of Chisinau, selected from the empiric materials (interviews): life style, behavior, culture, visual practices of dealing with urban space, urban identity and the problem of its development, urban socialization and transmission of experience of living in an urban space, the problem of coexistence of the two city “centers” – an urban and a rural one. The relevance of this opposition for the city discourse can be explained by deviations from an ideal city image, existing in the representations of the residents with an expressed urban identity. In general, the given opposition represents a continuum with different forms and correlations of their typical features. It is a complex problem with reasons lying in the particularities of the urbanization process in the Republic, the harsh social stratification after the USSR disintegration and the intensive internal migration as a consequence of socio-economic reasons, typical for the transition period. Under the conditions of lack of coherent and positive representations about the city, special focus should be placed on the estimation and development of its symbolic capital, so that parallel to the active change of the city outlook and its infrastructure, its attractiveness for the residents could also be strengthened.

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