Abstract

GOMEZ CARMONA, Gabriel  and  VILLAR CALVO, Alberto Javier. Symbolic appropriation and identity reconfiguration of urban space in Metepec, in the State of México. Nova scientia [online]. 2014, vol.6, n.11, pp.268-290. ISSN 2007-0705.

All changes seen in the city in the last decades have led to a wide number of studies from fields like sociology, anthropology and environmental psychology. Specifically, researches on the analysis of the social implications of such changes allow us to understand the way individuals live, represent and make use of urban areas as part of their identity. By the same token, we are given the opportunity to gain an insight into the complexity of the socio-cultural relations existent within a city and by doing so, overcoming the patchy notions we have created in architecture when talking about design and construction of a city. Namely, not only does architectonic and urban perspective broaden both the city's reality scene and its socio-spatial complexity, but also it is possible to include in the analysis of the city all social, economic, political and cultural factors underlying the conception and expansion processes in urbanization, it all resulting in enriching symbolic associations which allow us to appreciate the identifying features of urban-architectonic objects in a city. From this perspective, two major considerations are presented. On the one hand, the symbolic nature of areas constituting the urban landscape and its role in the construction of the social identity and on the other hand, the effects that recent processes of urban growth have (from the use of ICTs) on the responsible and efficient restructuring of such urban landscapes. Taking as a case study on Metepec town, belonging to the Metropolitan area of Toluca city, in the State of Mexico, this work is intended to serve as an introduction to the theoretical ideas from recent years around these transformational processes and their influences on the different types of social coexistence of the urban areas. Similarly, it provides us with a critique thought on the identifying marks arisen from the processes of urban spreading and uses of land commonly associated with the global tendencies on tertiary activities in zones possessing strong traditional ties and which have been integrated to the metropolitan dynamics of Mexico in recent decades.

Keywords : identity; urban identity; symbolic urban area; spatial identity.