Affective Dimension in Cognitive Maps of Barcelona and São Paulo [PDF]

1

Affective Dimension in Cognitive Maps of Barcelona and São Paulo

Zulmira Aurea Cruz Bomfim Pontifícia Universidade Católica de São Paulo, Brazil Enric Pol Urrutia Universitat de Barcelona

Publicado en International Journal of Psychology, (2005) num. 40 (1), Special issue editado por R. García Mira y Eulogio Real.

2 This paper analyzes the relationship between city and affection as revealed through an investigation into the feelings and emotions of a sample of inhabitants of Barcelona and Sao Paulo towards their city. A study of affection in the context of a city has its origin in the assumption that it is possible to develop an ethical-affective rationality in the creation of spaces of both public and private interest, a dimension that can serve to optimize the action of the inhabitants of a city. The theoretical/methodological approach adopted was essentially interdisciplinary, with a basis in social psychology, as can be seen in the data-gathering instrument. In order to assess the city’s affective dimension, individual interviews were carried out and a questionnaire was applied to individuals in groups. In the latter subjects were asked to make a drawing representing their city and to answer some questions regarding this pictorial representation. The sample consisted of 200 subjects, half of whom were from Barcelona and half from Sao Paulo. Most were in the age range 18 – 35, undergraduate or graduate students, with females and residents of the metropolitan areas of the two cities studied being in the majority. The qualitative data were classified according to their meaning and content, using the categories that had been established in the pilot study, namely contrasts, insecurity, pleasantness and belonging. A statistical analysis was then performed on the resulting categories. After being categorized, catalogued, and qualified by metaphors, the responses gave the following images: city of contrast, city of attraction, city of destruction, city of surprises, city of movement and pleasant city. These images show feelings and emotions about Barcelona and São Paulo that act as representations. This presents the need to revise the affective dimension in the meaning structure of cognitive maps as proposed by Lynch. As a result, the new category of affective maps is therefore proposed, as being the category that expresses affective meanings and serves as an indication of the level of esteem for the city, two aspects that act as reference points for the involvement and participation of a city’s inhabitants.

Ce travail analyse la relation entre la ville et l’affectivité dans le cadre d’une recherche sur les sentiments et les émotions qu’un échantillon de citoyens de Barcelone et de Sao Paulo ressentent envers leur ville. Étudier l'affectivité dans le contexte de la ville part de la supposition qu’un possible développement d’une rationalité éthique-affective est capable de produire des espaces d’intérêt public et privé, dimension qui peut optimiser l'action des habitants de la ville. Le point de vue théorique/méthodologique adopté a été essentiellement interdisciplinaire mais de base psychosociale, comme le montre l'instrument de recueil des renseignements.

3 La dimension affective de la ville a été évaluée par des entretiens individuels et par un questionnaire administré en groupes. Lors de l’administration du questionnaire, on a demandé aux participants d'effectuer un dessin représentant leur ville et de répondre à quelques questions sur le dessin qu’ils venaient de faire. L’échantillon comprend 200 participants, de Barcelone et de Sao Paulo à égalité. La plupart étaient âgés entre 18 et 35 ans, étaient des étudiants universitaires de premier cycle ou ayant gradué, avec une plus forte présence de femmes et d’habitants des banlieues métropolitaines des villes étudiées. Les renseignements qualitatifs ont été classés selon leurs signification et contenu, en suivant les catégories qui avaient été établies lors de l'étude pilote. Ces catégories sont les suivantes : contrastes, insécurité, attrait et appartenance. Une analyse statistique fut réalisée auprès des catégories résultantes. Après les avoir catégorisées, cataloguées et qualifiées par des métaphores, les réponses ont fourni les images suivantes : ville de contraste, ville d’attraction, ville de destruction, ville de surprises, ville de mouvements et ville belle. Ces images montrent des sentiments et des émotions sur Barcelone et Sao Paulo qui agissent comme des représentations. Ceci nous renvoi au besoin d’une révision de la dimension affective dans la structure de signification des cartes mentales proposées par Lynch. Conséquemment, la nouvelle catégorie de cartes affectives est proposée comme étant celle qui articule les significations affectives et permet une approche du degré d’estimation pour la ville, deux aspects qui jouent un rôle de référence dans l’implication et la participation des citoyens.

Este trabajo analiza la relación entre ciudad y afectividad a partir de una investigación sobre los sentimientos y emociones de una muestra de habitantes de Barcelona y Sao Paulo tienen hacia su ciudad. Estudiar la afectividad en el contexto de la ciudad parte del supuesto de que es posible el desarrollo de una racionalidad ético-afectiva en la generación de espacios de interés público y privado, dimensión que puede optimizar la acción de los habitantes de la ciudad. El enfoque teórico/metodológico adoptado fue esencialmente interdisciplinario, pero de base psicosocial, como se refleja en el instrumento de recogida de datos. Para evaluar la dimensión afectiva de la ciudad, se realizaron entrevistas individuales y se aplicó un cuestionario de autocumplimentación en situación de grupos. Se les pidió a los sujetos que realizaran un dibujo representando su ciudad y respondieran algunas preguntas sobre el dibujo que acababan de hacer. La muestra estuvo formada por 200 personas, mitad de Barcelona y mitad de Sao Paulo, con edades comprendidas mayoritariamente entre 18 y 35 años, mayoritariamente estudiantes de licenciatura y postgrado, con mayor

4 presencia de mujeres y de residentes en las áreas metropolitanas de las ciudades estudiadas. Los datos cualitativos fueron clasificados según su significado y contenido, siguiendo las categorías que se habían establecido en la prueba piloto. Estas categorías son las siguientes: contrastes, inseguridad, agradabilidad y pertenencia. Posteriormente se aplicó un análisis estadístico a las categorías resultantes. Después de haber categorizado, catalogado y calificado por metáforas, las respuestas proporcionaron las siguientes imágenes: ciudad de contrastes, ciudad atractiva, ciudad destructiva, ciudad de sorpresas, ciudad con movimiento y ciudad bella. Estas imágenes muestran sentimientos y emociones sobre Barcelona y Sao Paulo que actúan como representaciones. Esto plantea la necesidad de una revisión de la dimensión afectiva en la estructura de significado de los mapas cognitivos propuesto por Lynch. Como resultado, se propone la categoría de los mapas afectivos, como la que articula los significados afectivos y permite acercarse al grado de estima por la ciudad, aspectos que juegan un papel referencial en la implicación y participación ciudadana.

It is as difficult to assess the feelings and emotions of subjects from an urban population as it is to identify and name them individually. Perceptions, emotions and feelings, considered elements of an internal language, can often be as intangible as external expressions. The pathway from perception to verbalization is a complex process. That pathway is reflected in the reality of day-to-day life and is created over and over every day by the city’s inhabitants. Perceptions, emotions and feelings are expressions of the social structure, and it is a considerable methodological challenge to approach them within the framework of cognitive processes alone. For this reason it was necessary to devise a methodology which could facilitate the process of reaching the intangible. The drawing and discourse of the inhabitants of Barcelona and São Paulo were taken as the starting point for the attempt to evaluate feelings and emotions associated with these cities. A comparison was made between the two cities considering their very different

5 urban structures, as viewed by the users, and some principles for applying the feelings and emotion methodology linked to the urban aspects were formulated. The investigation follows a research pattern that involves several inter-disciplinary dimensions: social psychology, environmental psychology, sociology, geography, architecture and urbanism. However, the predominant dimension is a confluence of social and environmental psychology through investigation of the affective category. Affect as a category of Social and Environmental Psychology, is seen, in the present study, as the synthesis of the interface between the individual and the city. It is seen as integrating aspects of knowledge, perception and spatial orientation in overcoming dichotomies such as subjectivity and objectivity, at the same time as being part of the reflection on the possibility of developing an “ethical-affective rationality in the city” (Sawaia, 1995, p. 24), capable of generating relational spaces for public and private needs. Previous studies, carried out in two different locations on the outskirts of Brasilia in Nova Gama and Pedregal (in 1990), and in the city of Fortaleza (in 1997), focused on attempting to learn about the social meaning of the dwellers in their places of residence and their city, respectively (Bomfim, 1990; Bomfim, Domício & Terceiro, 1997). The intention was to confront the collective knowledge of the population about their urban space and their daily lives with the urban policies implemented by previous government administrations. There is knowledge of daily life that must be taken into consideration when setting up goals and policies for urban planning. In practice, it has been observed that the community knows what it needs in its everyday life in the city. What the inhabitants really need is to be heard and be taken into consideration.

6 The current study adds the affectionate aspect as a significant aggregated factor in the perception and knowledge of the city in the forms of appropriation and organization of territory, using it as a way of developing citizenship.

Leading Aspects of the Investigation: City, Citizenship, Territory, Affection and Symbolism of Space The urban phenomenon, the territorial aspect and, more specifically, the city are social constructions. Citizenship is the quality of being a citizen directly related to the territorial space where the individual lives and builds his or her lifestyle. The worthiness of the individual depends on their location. It is the status given to those who are full members of a community where everybody is considered equal regarding all rights and obligations that entitle them to that status (Rivero, 2001). Citizenship is therefore a key to democratic political access where everyone is an equal member of society with equal access to services in relation to the territory and developed space, used for living in the city. It is well known, however, that the government machine seldom manages the territory (city) adequately, to enable people to ascertain individual rights and an even distribution of goods and services. The city, on the one hand, can be a territory where new levels of consciousness can be raised, labor organized and political expedience instrumented that will enable the humanizing of a community. On the other hand, it can be a space to alienate and usurp rights, both individually and collectively. Santos (1998) calls for a reflection on the concept of citizenship. In his opinion, the urban phenomenon is associated with the rights of being a citizen because it provides new levels of consciousness, labor organization and political expedience. The organization of territory is associated with the political transformation of society. His idea of citizenship

7 cannot be decided beforehand because it is historical. As history changes, its definition also changes. According to the author, the current definition of citizenship is dominated by the economy to the detriment of cultural debates, It is in that sense that, for Santos, the concept of citizenship cannot be detached from the territorial aspect. As he says, there are social inequalities that are first of all territorial inequalities because they derive from the place where each group gathers. Its treatment cannot be foreign to the territorial realities. The citizen is the individual in one place. The Republic will only become democratic when all citizens are considered as equals, regardless of where they may be (Santos, 1998). To comprehend cities is to know that urbanization is intrinsic to the way of life, and vice-versa. Lefebvre (2001) speaks of analogies about images of social and city life. These images present themselves as a relationship between social symbolism and elements of space, reminding us that the idea of social structures is sensitive to the effects of spatial organization. They are strategically steered by the elite in power. In the language of architects, there is a direct relation between architectural creation and social life. He considers the need to investigate both the way of life and the means of urbanization, since in order to study the city, it is necessary to see it as the projection of social relations onto the ground, indicating a method that will not overlook any aspect of society, lifestyles, history, economic organization, social and technical divisions. The most powerful groups are the main agents of urbanization. They are the ones who create the models for consumption, housing and entertainment, and then transform them into reference models for the population as a whole. The adjustment between a lifestyle model and an urbanization model may serve as a criterion for measuring the evolution of kinds of lifestyles as well as the evolution of urbanization.

8 Lefebvre (2001) shows that the lack of interest of the population in urban matters is due to their lack of participation in the decision making process on a larger scale. This distancing of the individual from the urbanization process makes him powerless before the changes in urban life, thus making his supporting role increasingly distant. Seldom are any of the urban transformations preceded by community discussions or by representative groups. The participatory distancing of the individual citizen in the urban transformations brought about by public officials is even more frequent in post-industrial cities, making the emancipation process even more utopian. It is a moot question whether citizenship always depends on the power of the state or if it is also considered a public good, ingrained in the community so that individuals will be able to build on it, thus becoming agents in the process of emancipation. Construction in a city with input from its citizens undergoes a process of authentic self-esteem based on people’s participation and promotes a sense of identity and appropriation. Citizenship is not an external process but a joint participation among individuals, community and city administration. The citizens’ participation in the planning and visualization of any possible developmental impact and action plans by the city allows for a sense and desire to do something to better the life of a community regardless of any urban interventions, with no particular relation to daily life. In order to discuss this process a little better, it is necessary to understand the symbolism of space and the subtleties built in the city. Social psychology and environmental psychology have studied the relation between city and symbolism of space. Perception of the city, while being a spatial structure built for the community, reflects more than just a physical structure, but also a dialogue with the symbolic. The knowledge or the representation that an individual has about their city is in

9 itself subjective and a collective fact, because it is not only what exists concretely that gains prominence in people's minds but also what the community reinforces. Socially and historically-based Environmental Psychology studies the concept of urban social identity with the understanding that it may come from the sentiment of belonging to a concrete place or places, along with the valued and emotional meaning that bonds them together (Valera & Pol, 1994). Yi-Fu Tuan (1983) explains the Identity of Place as that aspect of an individual that allows the creation of a safety net and a bond to the space created. The place is the home, the old house, the old neighborhood, the old city, or the country. While the place is security, space is freedom. According to the author, people bond to the former and aim for the latter. Space is more abstract than a place. What starts as undefined space turns into a place as knowledge of it improves and it is assigned a certain value. The concepts of “space” and “place” cannot be defined without each other. If space is considered to be something that allows movement, then “place” is pause; each pause in movement makes it possible for location to turn it into a place” (Tuam, 1983, p. 06). The meaning of urban space has been mentioned in environmental psychology as an important factor in understanding the surroundings, especially in the context of human value development (Valera, 2002). The author highlights the symbolic and affectionate elements as part of the wealth of psychological, social and cultural meanings. The affection aspect has been approached as an important factor of meaning. However, few studies have been developed in relation to the images the population has about the city surroundings concerning its affection, emotions, sentiments, or even perhaps the possibility of considering affection as a leading force in city space, in addition to perception and representation.

10 In this study cognitive maps will be considered as expressions of the symbolic in the interaction of the individual and their environment. The map appears as a method of movement and as a way to make known the unknown, using cities, the environment, communities, etc. Since the affection dimension may be present in the cognitive map of the city that is what will be discussed. The method for developing cognitive maps is a procedure though which people acquire, encode, store, record and decode information about places and attributes of any phenomenon within the urban space. It should be borne in mind that each person has a mental map of the city, even if fragmented, of streets, boulevards or certain neighborhoods in relation to others. The method of elaborating these maps is to externalize the maps so that experiences are gathered from interviewees in a way that can be observed. Afterwards, the map’s precision is analyzed according to such parameters as incompatibility with reality, level of structure and type of consensus amongst many individuals. Milgram and Jodelet (1976) developed an investigation that sought to clarify the relation between social representations and the city, studying the cities of Paris and New York through cognitive mapping and drawings of mental maps. Seen from different approaches, one same study may have different results. They consider the social and cognitive dimensions fundamental in understanding the environment, being in perfect tune with the social psychology approach in which they see the inseparable subject-object relationship as a social and psychological phenomenon. For studying cities it is interesting to see social representations as a portal into the world of symbolism of the population’s daily routine, because it tells us how the dwellers build their reality based on their cultural reality.

11 However, not every mental map may be considered a social representation because others do not necessarily share the same map of a city’s significant points. Milgram & Jodelet (1976) pointed to the conditions under which a mental map can be considered a social representation: first, that all internal models represent more social objects; second, that characteristics have to be shared in maps of a significant number of people; thirdly, there has to be a greater presence of social meanings than geographical ones. The theory of cognitive maps developed by Lynch (1998) from the environmental psychology perspective comes from the idea that urban space can be “read”. That is, there is a list of recognizable symbols that determines whether a city is more or less legible. For Lynch (1998), the main function of this legibility is orientation. An easily “legible” environment raises the depths and intensity for the potential of human experience. Besides the function of orientation, the environment’s image has a practical and emotional importance. An efficient environmental image gives the bearer a strong sense of emotional security. Complete chaos with no harmony never results in anything pleasant, but the element of surprise has a certain value in the environment. The meaning given by the observer to an environment’s image is, for Lynch, one of the dimensions that should be analyzed in the urban space in the city. Lynch’s theory discusses the image’s elements (identity) and the spatial relationship of the object and the observer with other objects (structures). Each individual creates and takes his own image, but there seem to be fundamental differences among members of the same group. There is a group image or consensus among a considerable number of individuals. Valera (2002) approaches the importance of the social representation theory in environmental psychology as a way to bypass the cognitive theory of cognitive maps. That

12 is, an attempt by environmental psychology to enlarge the space representation theme over Lynch’s (1998) and Downs and Stea’s (1977) extreme reductionism of cognitive maps. It is through cognitive maps that social representations reach the urban environment analysis. It is in social representation that analysis of urban surroundings considers the social and cognitive aspects. It could be clearly said that both theories benefit from their points, cognitive maps and social representations, since each theory includes aspects that lead to a greater understanding of the social and cognitive phenomenon related to the environment. Milgram & Jodelet (1976) emphasize the idea of social content of cognitive maps stating that the city is an essential product of human social activity whose symbols are represented in elements of urban space both structurally and by image-creation by their inhabitants. Valera (2002) evaluated Lynch’s theory where meaning is only an added-on value and opted for the development of cognitive aspects. He says that spatial meaning was both implied and expressly contemplated in Lynch’s initial works, although in a limited way. It is precisely the development of aspects of image of a city made by their own inhabitants that needs to be discussed, especially as a way of expressing feelings and emotions regarding city space. In theories about the cognitive method the distancing of the integrated affection aspect from the cognitive aspect is notorious. The main thinkers, Tolman (1948), Lynch (1998), Downs and Stea (1977), developed the idea that these are mental representations of reality, products of the psychological and perceptive processes that allow definition and determine a spatial set that carries great importance in human action and conduct.

13 Perception and cognition are, therefore, the psychic dimensions considered for the process representing the space and human conduct orientation regarding the urban space. The symbolic and meaningful aspect is mentioned, although only to a limited extent . Integration of the affection aspect in conduct orientation in social and spatial predispositions receives even less mention. Can affection, then, or the emotions and feelings related to the city space, be a form of evaluating a community as indicative of their way of establishing citizenship? Traditionally, duality is present in modern sciences, in the understanding of their subject, requiring a more global wisdom that takes them in their entirety without having to separate subject from object, body from mind, individual from group, biological from cultural, internal from external, etc. Vygotsky (1991) understands the thought originating from motivation, i.e. desires, needs and emotions. He does not separate the intellect from thought and emotion. These dimensions are intertwined in the comprehension of the human psyche. The basis of thought is motive. Lane (1994) establishes emotional mediation in the core of the human psyche and adds affection as a new category, made up of long-lasting feelings. Damásio (1998) sees emotions and feelings as creators of central biological aspects, establishing a bridge between the rational and non-rational processes, between the cortex and the sub-cortex. Nowadays one of the major challenges for Social and Community Psychology is the intervention that splits the separation of mind and body, subjectivity and objectivity, reason and emotion, and at the same time enables integration between uniqueness and the ordinary (Granjo, 1996).

14 It is the practice of emancipation that allows social psychology to understand an intervention in the community not only from the point of view of social and material determinations, which lead to oppression and social alienation, but also those that can reach sensitive dimensions of emotions and feelings in everyday life. In that sense, emotions and feelings may be faced as ethical processes of emancipation. Sawaia (1999) suggests that the category of affection is an emancipator of sentiment, ethical and political action, supported by Espinoza’s philosophy of happiness. The author says that in order to overcome the scission between individual and commonality, or the idea of subjectivity associated with social non-commitment, individuality, and superficial feelings brought on by post-modern societies, they may break down, thus enhancing the intensity of the growth of happiness and the individual’s potential to exist. That is why searching for passions is a way to seek man’s real possibilities, and his own emancipation. What types of experience can favor the creation of a participatory lifestyle in the city that promotes a formation of spaces with which to relate, using affection as an integrating category? Could the city be a focus of development in citizen-involved constructions based on dialogues between individuality and commonality ingrained in everyday life? One participatory experience developed by Segovia City Council in Spain (Ayuntamiento de Segovia, 1999), illustrates this possibility of having emotions and feelings as an important instrument of intervention in the city. This study involved 900 students of various ages and 25 teachers from 11 different schools who coordinated an investigation called the Segovia Emotional Map action.

15 They tried to collect more immediate emotions, such as smells, sounds, images, pleasant and unpleasant sensations from several city neighborhoods, through distinct and expressive techniques (photos, drawings, poems, texts). The experimental goal was for the children and adolescents to reflect on their city and define themselves within the city, so they could learn how to become involved in a process of participation, expressing their opinions and demanding a better city for all (Ayuntamiento de Segovia, 1999). Citizens’ participation in city planning goals as an environment educational tool to find ways to participate in the decision making process was the end result accomplished by this experiment. The children and adolescents from Segovia met with city officials to express their concerns and tell officials what they liked and what they did not like about the city and to request changes. To plan, to rehabilitate, to educate for citizenship, to develop abilities as citizens, is a proposal that could be fully experienced in the city as a conquered space. For ValentePereira (1991), rehabilitating the urban space means “a whole new urban policy for the purpose of revamping the city’s image, to regain the city’s worthiness, regain its old respect and to bring it back to the old status quo that no longer was” (Valente-Pereira, 1991, p. 28). According to this author, it is necessary to differentiate intervention from rehabilitation. In the latter, there is a concern with consequences in social processes, concepts and values that have created today’s city. It is upon terms of concepts and urban values that rehabilitation should depend. The search for the good old concepts is related to the idea of moving forward and not going back. It is evolution based on learning about one’s roots and realizing what is still required for us to reach for the new without eliminating the old and, therefore, retaining esteem for the city and the people who live there.

16 Micro-social and macro-social instances, dialogues between the individual and the community, need to be considered in a citizens’ intervention proposal. The psychological and social dimensions based on affection as a leading aspect should involve many spheres of daily life that go from the public level to the innermost individual spheres.

Method Participants The sample consisted of 200 subjects, half from Barcelona and half from São Paulo, mostly aged 18 to 35, the majority being women and native inhabitants of the city’s metropolitan area. They were born and live in the city itself or in its metropolitan area; some are newcomers. As to their occupation, most are graduates and post-graduate students; a few are employees earning a single minimum wage and some are retired.

Measurement The data were collected through a questionnaire, applied individually in undergraduate and post-graduate classes from the universities of Barcelona and São Paulo. Some were applied individually, directly to the subject, in the presence of the investigator. On one side of the questionnaire, the subject was asked to make a drawing of the city; on the other side, there were questions about the drawing (such as: what does your drawing mean to you? How do you feel about it? What words can summarize your feelings? What do you think about day-to-day life in the city?).

Procedure

17 The data collected were submitted both to a qualitative assessment (based on an analysis of the drawing’s structure, according to Lynch’s theory) and to an interpretative analysis of the feelings, especially as expressed by the summary words. The drawings were classified into Lynch’s categories: landmarks, districts, paths, nodes, and edges , with the incorporation of an additional category: metaphorical drawings, representing ideas, moods or mind states, apart from a city’s structures. The data were also quantified in a 0-10, 4-dimensional scale of feelings and emotions about the city: contrasts, insecurity, pleasantness and belonging. The aim of this plan of analysis was to generate hypotheses about the influence of the city in the affection people have for the cities in which they live, without ignoring the possible interference of other socio-demographic variables with affection. The category of contrasts includes contradictory feelings, emotions, and words with a positive/negative polarization. Insecurity stands for references to what is unexpected, unstable and somehow negative. Pleasantness refers to positive feelings and to connectivity. The belonging category encompasses all the feelings, emotions, and words of self-identification with one’s place. In accordance with Lynch’s theory of cognitive maps, the drawings were classified into the following categories: landmarks, districts, paths, nodes, and edges. A fourth category was detected and named metaphors. Lynch’s categories are isomorphic with the urban space, varying from large to small; metaphors refer to affective rather than structural contents. After following the above-mentioned steps, the next stage was to analyze the images of Barcelona and São Paulo, supported by the articulation of responses from each individual, summarized in affective maps, which include: drawing, significance, quality, feeling, metaphor and meaning. It should be noted that,

18 in the categories which relate to drawings, only the classification between metaphorical and isomorphic drawings (Lynch) was considered. See the example in Table 1.

________________________________

Please, place Table 1 here ________________________________

Results: Images of Barcelona and São Paulo The images of the cities of Barcelona and São Paulo acquired during the qualitative analysis were: contrasts, attraction, destruction, surprise, pleasantness and movement. Table 2 shows these images with the respective feelings they represent. ________________________________

Please, place Table 2 here ________________________________

Note that Barcelona and Sao Paulo share a common image: both have been considered poles of considerable attraction, and yet have considerable unpleasantness. Their common image is usually associated with large cities, fostering ambiguous feelings in their inhabitants: the attractiveness of a large city (leisure) versus the high cost of living there (unpleasantness). On the other hand, Barcelona and Sao Paulo were associated with different images, these being, respectively, the City of Attraction and the City of Destruction. The image of Attraction characterizes Barcelona as an export model, especially for the arts, culture, and urbanization. To a lesser degree, Sao Paulo is also seen as an City of Attraction, due to its job opportunities and cultural life. However, it is more strongly pictured as the City of

19 Destruction, with a large numbers and amounts of buildings, concrete, misery and pollution, signs of decadence, poverty, and extreme social differences. This negative image is hardly associated with Barcelona. Another significant image for Barcelona (17%) is that of the pleasant city. Answers referring to beauty, color, and pleasantness in this category reveal a strong sense of belonging and childhood remembrances. Another category in Barcelona (14%) and São Paulo (8%) is that of a Surprising City, continuously displaying a novelty which is perceived positively or negatively by its inhabitants. Next, the images of Barcelona and Sao Paulo will be further detailed, with some of their corresponding metaphors.

City of contrasts The attraction vs. hassle city of Barcelona is a good example of a large, modern city with many incentives and great cultural diversity, open to people in general, facing typical urban problems, so that it can be characterized by contrasting qualities such as: noisy/quiet, polluted/healthy, artificial/natural, colorful/gray, joyful/serious, warm/dangerous. Its contrasting nature also appears in the relation between attractiveness and insecurity: on one hand, it is pleasant, attractive, good-looking, and rich; on the other hand, it has poverty, prostitution, pollution, and stress. Its attractiveness (cultural variegation) contrasts also with an intercultural isolation and anonymity. That contrasting image is illustrated by two metaphors: “the chewing gum and the red apple with a rotten side”. The chewing gum metaphor shows that Barcelona is appealing to taste, but it can also make one tired if one keeps chewing it all day long. In the

20 other metaphor, the half-rotten red apple is apparently beautiful and can be nutritious, but it has damaged parts: poverty, prostitution, pollution, stress, and lack of safety.

________________________________

Please, place Figure 1 here ________________________________

As it happens, São Paulo’s contrasts are especially social in nature. It is an attractive city, but with a high cost. The attractions are mostly related to cultural and artistic life and to job opportunities. The positive feelings of pleasure and pleasantness, the joy of living there, contrast with sadness and anger. Other contrasting feelings found about São Paulo are: euphoria/depression, acceptance/refusal, proximity/distance, freedom/imprisonment, love/hate, coldness/warmth, relaxation/hurry, day (routine)/night (serenity, freedom), angst/confidence, satisfaction/deception, pride/frustration, despair/hope, comfort/confusion. There are seemingly paradoxical qualities such as: order/disorder, progress/misery, civilization/barbarity, justice/unfairness, discomfort/luxury, prosperity/danger, chaos/functionality, pattern/exception, sameness/novelty, cleanliness/dirtiness, domination/submission, collectivity/individuality, synthesis/analysis, dating/separation. For one subject, a youngster, São Paulo is like “night and day”: the day means work, routine, stress; the night is partying, going out with friends, leisure and culture. For another, a 50-year old woman, the contrast is represented by a pineapple: thorns outside, possibly sweet inside. Another subject, a 21-year old, expresses an ambiguous feeling about São Paulo by saying that she loves her city and yet cannot stand it at times.

21

________________________________

Please, place Figure 2 here ________________________________

City of attraction

The image of Barcelona as attraction is deeply distinguished by the attractiveness of its high-level cultural diversity, offering beauty, knowledge, opportunities for business and the arts, and fostering ideas and thoughts. In Barcelona, one is always facing an opportunity to choose what to do. Feelings related to pleasure and welfare belong to this category. Pleasure, however, is not always present. Subjects have pointed out some frustration due to the difference between what is available there and what is individually feasible. Barcelona is also attractive for its identification with the history of urbanism. Organization and quality are important characteristics of the city. Its attractiveness combines several elements of beauty, entertainment, multiculturality, nature, and modernity, together with shopping centers, leisure, architectural design, and surprises. The “menu city” metaphor is an example of this category: like a good restaurant, it offers good food, but in the end the bill is not cheap. Or, like a “theme park”, it brings together culture and beauty.

________________________________

Please, place Figure 3 here ________________________________

In São Paulo, the attraction city is especially characterized by the chance to gain

22 access to culture, diversity and work. It is the city of opportunities and tolerance towards difference. There are feelings of pleasantness and belonging related to one’s being born there. It is a wonderful city because of the feeling of identification that exists there, in spite of all the contrasts, a city of joy and of mood changes, of observation and impatience. Affection, tenderness, absence, solitude, and faith can be found there. Despite loving the city where one was born, danger has to be faced (death, violence and burglary). Anger is also present when it comes to road traffic. The feeling of belonging is associated to attractiveness, not to any other image such as pleasantness. It can be seen either as a “clock city” or a “volcano city”.

City of destruction

In Barcelona, the image of degradation and destruction is related to the lack of green areas, to the high density of population, and the priority of cars over people. Feelings can also be ambiguous: it is either a “boat city” or a “sewer city”, in its characteristic solitude and isolation. In São Paulo, decadence is expressed by pressure, hassle, and the impossibility of staying in-between. Massification takes precedence over individualities. Once there, it is essential to blend in. Pollution and concrete, in the midst of high-rise buildings, are an expression of decadence, poverty, inequalities, illnesses, disease (respiratory problems), and death. The commonest feelings are: sadness, gloom, resignation, hopelessness, impotence, angst, solitude, lack of union and affection, indifference, dissatisfaction, apathy, fear, dread, restlessness, stress, discomfort, annoyance, separation, insensibility, coldness, heedlessness, disloyalty, anger, horror, hatred, despair, abandonment, superficiality, impersonality, indifference, selfishness, diversity, imprisonment, massification, chaos, disorder.

23 São Paulo can be compared to a “battlefield”, lacking mutual respect, or a trap, where a wrong step may be fatal (for distinct reasons: finances, health, or psyche), and one is swallowed by the city. In this category, a few existing benefits could be mentioned, such as the access to culture, arts, and information, but they are not sufficient to encourage the expression of positive feelings.

City of movement

The idea of movement city, in Barcelona, has to do with a permanent search for its own identity. It is a city in continuous evolution, movement, and transformation, like a “living being”, the life of a person growing up through different phases, or even the “Church of the Sacred Family”, the construction of which never comes to an end. Like an open-ended project, Barcelona always gives rise to a new intervening action. Feelings can be ambiguous: welcome/uneasiness, or also reserve/total enjoyment. Movement, in São Paulo, has a special meaning, marked by the multiple choices of what to do depending on where one is. In Barcelona, on the other hand, movement is rather innovation and change. Speed is part of the movement city in São Paulo, as startling as an “alarm clock”, resembling sometimes New York City. In São Paulo, movement is dynamism; in Barcelona, it is transformation. However, both cities appear rather similar when it comes to people’s internal movement.

City of surprises

The image of Barcelona as a surprise represents all the novelty engendered by the city and the freedom of self-realization. Like a music box, which plays a different song each time it is opened . This image may or may not be associated with feelings of

24 belonging. In São Paulo, the idea of surprise is connected to the novelty and curiosity of the city, like a maze.

Pleasant city

The pleasant city is defined in Barcelona as the green city, the sea, and the mountains. In the words of a female resident, the sea and the mountain prevail in Barcelona. Answers referring to beauty, color, and pleasantness fall into this category, and reveal a strong sense of belonging and childhood remembrances. Here are feelings of pleasure in enjoying one’s free time and of belonging to the city. A feeling of unconditional love appears also in this category. That was the case of Barcelona alone, the subjects from São Paulo not giving any such answers. Considering the order of importance of the appearance of images of Barcelona and São Paulo, two differences should be pointed out, especially amongst images of attraction, destruction and pleasantness, whilst similarity is to be found in the images of contrasts, movement and surprises.

The drawings

In both samples, metaphoric drawings occurred less frequently than isomorphic ones. In Barcelona, the main landmarks found in isomorphic drawings (cognitive maps) were: the Church of the Sacred Family, the statue of Columbus, and the towers of the Olympic Village; borders: mountain and sea, Montjuic and Tibidabo; a path: the Ramblas; a node: Plaza de Catalunya. São Paulo’s sample showed much fewer icons. Among the most recurrent ones is the Paulista Avenue.

25

Statistical Analysis of Qualitative Data With regard to the statistical organization of the qualitative data, the variables of item 05 in the research instrument (Lykert scale) were divided into dependent (pertinence, contrasts, pleasantness and lack of security), independent (city) and control (sex, age, schooling, employment status, own monthly income). The aim of this analysis plan was to generate hypotheses about the influence of the city upon people’s affection for the cities in which they live, without ignoring the possible interference of other sociodemographic variables for affection. Of the scores attributed by respondents to each of the variables for the categories pertinence, contrasts, pleasantness and lack of security, the respective indices (averages) were calculated for each category. They were considered as indicative of affect, with contrast and lack of security being most related to a negative rating of the city and pleasantness and pertinence to a positive rating.

________________________________

Please, place Figure 4 here ________________________________

Conclusion: On Cognitive and Affective Maps The present paper shows the importance of affections as a means to assess an individual’s feeling of appropriation and orientation in his/her city. The drawings and discourse of the inhabitants of Barcelona and São Paulo show how emotions and feelings can work as driving vectors in the assessment of people’s esteem towards their city, which is essential for their participation in city life as true

26 citizens. The metaphors are, par excellence, the linguistic form best suited to apprehend feelings such as those of appropriation and orientation. Drawings, due to their power to summarize, can aggregate affections and emotions and work as triggers for the easy expression of such psychological aspects. Metaphors complement this process by working as a means to help assess the affections and emotions expressed. Drawings and metaphors appeared as a possible means to access feelings without elaborating too much on them. Therefore, in a parallel between metaphors and feelings, both can be said to have one characteristic in common: the cultivation of intimacy. Both reflect reality as lived. The figurative use of language depends on beliefs and values and, on the other hand, makes for a connection with the community. Metaphors engender collective insight and feelings connect one to the community. Both feelings and metaphors are synthetic. Images and feelings take part in the formation of the metaphor. Due to such characteristics, the metaphor allows for systematic procedures geared towards the development of a methodology of affection apprehension. The initial plan was to extract affective maps from cognitive ones, assuming that subjects would draw the latter. Surprisingly, although the subjects were making a drawing of the city, there was not necessarily any spatial orientation or location in terms of Lynch’s cognitive maps. Maps always convey location, which is not necessarily true for images. Maps, on the contrary to images, are intended to be a reference for someone else. Maps are collective, whilst images are an abstract, individual representation. Images can occasionally foster the sense of location. Every map is an image, but not all images are maps. Nevertheless, in both maps and images there is a dialogue between the affective and

27 the cognitive. In images, however, the affective is more likely to prevail over the cognitive, since cognition is not its target, as it is for cognitive maps. So why have images been emphasized in this research? The authors of the present study believe that it is due to the way subjects made their drawings, expressing feelings rather than orientation. Furthermore, that observation corroborates current understanding about globalized cities, according to which they stimulate the use of images rather than the concrete icons and meanings of urban structure. Therefore, apprehending the space through images impairs the process of appropriation of the city by its citizens. Following the ‘Dual Model of Aproppriation’ (Pol, 1996), in the case of images, identification is stronger than actiontransformation. Image-based appropriation fosters identification, not action-transformation. This analysis applies indistinctly to Barcelona and São Paulo, but a few differences are noteworthy. In Barcelona, there were more answers with icons, symbols, monuments, and a more positive esteem on the part of its citizen towards the city than in São Paulo. Indeed, Barcelona currently has a policy of investment in marginal areas so as to promote urban and social revitalization. Globalized cities have abandoned their icons in order to give way to symbols that are in vogue, stimulating their inhabitants’ pride for the city, not for their own interests, but to be sold and exported as a model. International architecture is nowadays based on images rather than on icons (Arantes, 2000). Answers in São Paulo presented few icons (either monuments or meaningful spaces), low esteem, and a significant feeling of destruction and decadence. The absence of icons and symbolic urban spaces is common to globalized cities in general, but the low esteem has to do with the particularly large number of marginal areas in that city. Icons are

28 not dealt with because their reference objects are neither used nor appropriated – not because people are unaware of their existence . São Paulo has a history, and historical buildings, but only one subject mentioned "Pátio do Colégio" as a symbol of the city. On the other hand, metaphorical drawings occurred more frequently in São Paulo. Not isomorphic with the city, they are a rich expression of affection, either positively or negatively. Some subjects reportedly like the city and chose it to live in, in spite of its decadence. This feeling reveals a potential process of citizen participation that should be encouraged, reverting the present social marginalization and urban disqualification so as to raise the city’s self-esteem. Urban re-qualification projects are a possible means to improve it, as long as they are based on participative interventions and oriented towards the construction of responsible citizenship.

These findings point to an affection-oriented citizenship, considered a social-spatial conduct. This causes us to reflect upon the importance of images as a reference for the construction of actions and interventions within the city by public administrators, who favor a positive relationship between individual and city and consider the urban space to be an extension of individuals’ identity.

References Arantes, O. (2000). Uma estratégia fatal, a cultura nas novas gestões urbanas (A fatal strategy, the culture in the new urban managements). In O. Arantes, C. Vainer & E. Maricato (Org.), A cidade do pensamento único. Desmanchando consensos. Petrópolis: Vozes. Ayuntamiento de Segovia (1999). Mapa emocional de Segovia. La ciudad desde la mirada de los niños (Affective map of Segovia. The city throughout children eyes).

29 Segovia: Imagen. Bomfim, Z.A.C. (1990). Representações sociais do local de moradia, de si próprio e do outro em um grupo de moradores do Pedregal e do Novo Gama: Um estudo introdutório (Social representations of housing place -own and the other house- in a group of inhabitants of the Pedregal and New Gamma: An introductory study). Master dissertation, Universidade de Brasília, Brasília. Bomfim, Z.A.C.; Domício, A.M.B. & Terceiro, A.P. (1997). O conhecimento coletivo do cotidiano da cidade de Fortaleza (Collective knowledge of the daily life of Fortaleza city). Proceedings of the XXVI Interamerican Congress of Psychology. São Paulo: SIP. Damásio, A.R. (1998). O erro de Descartes: Emoção, razão e o cérebro humano (The error of Descartes: Emotion, reason and the human brain). São Paulo: Companhia das Letras. Downs, R.M. & Stea, D. (1977). Maps in minds. Reflections on cognitive mapping. New York: Harper & Row. Granjo, M.H.B. (1996). Agnes Heller: Filosofia, moral e educação (Agnes Heller: Philosophy, moral and education). Petrópolis: Ed. Vozes. Lane, S.T.M. (1994). A mediação emocional na constituição do psiquismo humano (Emotional mediation on the constitution of the human psyche). In S.T.M. Lane & B.B. Sawaia (Eds.), Novas veredas da psicologia social. São Paulo: EDUC/Brasiliense. Lefebvre, H. (2001). O direito à cidade (Writing on Cities). São Paulo: Centauro. Lynch, K. (1998). La imagen de la ciudad (The image of the city). Barcelona: Gustavo Gili. Milgram, S. & Jodelet, D. (1976). Psychological maps of Paris. In H.M. Proshansky, W.H.

30 Ittelson & L.G. Rivlin (Eds.), Environmental psychology. People and their physical settings (pp. 104-124). New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston. Pol, E. (1996). La apropiación del espacio (Appropriation of space). In L. Íñiguez & E. Pol (Eds.), Cognición, representación y apropiación del espacio. Monografies Socio/Ambientals, 9 (pp. 45-62). Barcelona: Publicacions Universitat de Barcelona. Rivero, A. (2001). Ciudadanía y globalización (Citizenship and globalisation). Anthropos,191, 70-78 (Special Issue: Ciudadania y Interculturalidad). Santos, M. (1998). O espaço do cidadão (Space of the citizen). São Paulo: Nobel (4th ed.). Sawaia, B. (1995). O calor do lugar: Segregação urbana e identidade (The heat of the place: Urban segregation and identity). São Paulo em Perspectiva, 9, (2), 20-24. (Special Issue: Questões Urbanas, Os sentidos das Mudanças). Sawaia, B.B. (1999). O sofrimento ético-político como categoria de análise da dialética exclusão/inclusão (Ethical-politician suffering as analysis category of the dialectic exclusion/inclusion) . In B.B. Sawaia (Ed.), As artimanhas da exclusão: Análise psicossocial e ética da desigualdade social (pp. 97-118). Petrópolis: Vozes. Tolman, E. (1948). Cognitive maps in rats and men. Psychological Review, 55, (4), 189 -208. Tuam, Yi-Fu. (1983). Espaço e lugar: A perspectiva da experiência (Space and Place: A perspective of the Experience). São Paulo: Difel. Vygotsky, L.S. (1991). Pensamento e linguagem (Thinking and language). São Paulo: Martins Fontes. Valente-Pereira, L. (1991). Reabilitar o urbano ou como restituir a cidade à estima Pública (Restoring urban places or how to replace the city for public estimate). Taubaté (Unitau): Geic.

31 Valera, S. (2002). Medio ambiente y representación social. Una visita a la ciudad como representación Social (Environment and social representation. Visiting the city as social representation). In R. García-Mira, J.M. Sabucedo & J. Romay (Eds.), Psicología y medio ambiente. Aspectos psicosociales, educativos y metodológicos (pp. 133-147). A Coruña: Publiedisa. Valera, S. & Pol, E. (1994). Identidad social y espacio simbólico urbano (Social identity and urban symbolic space). In B. Hernández, E. Suárez & J. Martínez-Torvisco (Eds.), Interpretación social y gestión del entorno. Aproximaciones desde la Psicología Ambiental (pp. 350-360). Tenerife: Universidad de La Laguna.

32

Table 1.- Summary of process of categorization geared towards preparation of affective map of the city

Identification No: Sex: Age: Schooling: City: Length of Residence (when not local).

Structure

Significance

Quality

Feelings

Metaphor

Meaning

*Lynch’s cognitive map: drawing of monuments, paths, limits, confluence and neighborhoo d.

Respondent’s explanation of drawing.

Attributes of the drawing and of the city, indicated by the respondent.

Respondent’s affective response to the drawing and to the city.

Respondent’s comparison between the city and something else, which serves for elaboration of metaphors.

Interpretation given by the investigator to the articulation of meaning between the city metaphors and other dimensions attributed by respondent (quality and feelings).

*Metaphor: drawing which expresses, by analogy, the feelings or state of mind of the respondent.

33

Table 2.- Images of Barcelona and São Paulo, according to qualities and feelings of respondents from these cities

IMAGES (order of importance )

Contrasts (1st) BCN SP (1st)

Attraction BCN (2nd) SP (3rd)

Destructi on BCN (6th) SP (2nd)

Pleasantness

Quality of Barcelona and São Paulo

Attraction/suffocation; noise/peace; clean/dirty; pollution/nature; colorful/gray; rich/poor; welcoming/mysterious;

Attractive; beautiful; cultural; diverse; opportunities; leisure; interesting; pretty; varied; wealth; impressive; multithemed; intercultural; Massification; decadence; ecological imbalance; artificiality; depreciation; ambiguity; individualism; poverty; pollution; lack of space; suffocation; isolation; anonymity; chãos; disorder; prostitution; Beauty; color; nature

BCN (3rd) SP – absent

Movemen t

Feelings about Barcelona and São Paulo cheerful/serious; happy/sad; euphoria/depression; acceptance/distancing; liberty/prison; love/hate; coldness/warmth; pleasure/displeasure; anxiety/hope; lovingness; happiness; love; belonging; well-being; anger; affect; absence; frustration; nostalgia; admiration; solitude; pleasure; emotional instability. Solitude; sadness; discouragement; hate; conformity; dispair; stress; impotence; anxiety; lack of hope; insatisfaction; insensibility; anger; disinterest; falsehood; horror, uncaring; lack of support. Memories; pleasure; pertinence; enjoyment; unconditionality; love of life; joy.

Evolution; identity; transformation; unfinished project; novelty;

Ambiguity; hospitality; inhospitality; strangeness; insecurity.

Novelty; liberty; flexibility; openness; differentiation; multiplicity.

Curiosity; insecurity; isolation; proximity; pertinence.

BCN (4th) SP (4th)

Surprisin g BCN (5th) SP (5th)

34 Figure 1.- Drawing of Barcelona that shows the image of contrasts

35 Figure 2.- Drawing of São Paulo that shows the image of contrasts

36

Figure 3.- Drawing of Barcelona that shows the image of attractive city

37 Figure 4.- Index of Affective Categories in Barcelona and Sao Paulo according to respondents

7,5 7,3

Average of categories

7,0 6,5

7,1 6,9

6,8 6,6 6,3

6,0 5,5

Pleasantness

5,7

Pertinence

5,0 4,7

4,5 4,0

Categories

Barcelona

São Paulo

Respondents

Contrast Lack of Security