Big City as a 'Voice' and 'Image' (on Materials of the City Dnipro)

Abstract

The article explores how the basic approaches in socio-humanitarian knowledge about city studies have changed. More specifically, there are some changes in the system of metaphors, which serve as a basis for studying the city space. A gradual shift from “real” space metaphors domination to the constructed dimensions is the main tendency. “Imaginary” and “symbolic” are now the core elements of the urbanistic studies. Therefore, the issue of symbolization of such places is becoming more interesting than the studies of the city topography and real objects or groups that constitute interconnected territorial units. The paper presents the results of researching the images of “creative city” as perceived by the student youth of Dnipro. The author of the article defines the differences between the above-mentioned images and the reality of Dnipro. There are several explanations of such differences. On the one hand, the youth notices the elements of the objects of the city space that fit into their ideology of creativity (some of the places-symbols, as co-workings, are important because of mere fact of their existence). On the other hand, during the process of one’s self-realization, they can face practical problems, and symbolization becomes less important. Since there are also some changes in symbolization of the city space (from changes in the holistic descriptions of the city to the dynamics of the topographic nomination system), the evolution of the generalized image of the city, which is incorporated into the citizens’ consciousness, becomes an interesting issue. The official discourse that is available for the citizens due to historical literature becomes one of the competitive projects. The article discusses the dynamics of the symbolization of the history of Katerynoslav-Dnipropetrovsk-Dnipro in traditional, soviet, and post-soviet projects.  The author of the paper demonstrates the logic of changes in the systems of events and characters, which help to present the history of the city to the locals within each of the projects.