Place identity or the place of identity: contribution to a theory of social identity of place

The relationship between the place where we live and our sense of who we are, has on one hand been neglected in social psychology, and on the other, within environmental psychology addressed mainly in the context of personal identity. The main objective of this thesis is to move the comprehension of place into the context of inter-group relationships, using the concepts of social identity and entitativity from social psychology. Specifically, this thesis aims to contribute to understanding the impact of place of residence from two points of view: from the residents’ point of view, place of residence as a basis for self-categorization and identification, leading to phenomena of in-group favouritism and out-group discrimination; and from the observers’ point of view, place of residence as an important source of information for forming impressions about its residentes; ABSTRACT: A importância do lugar onde residimos para a compreensão da nossa identidade tem sido, por um lado negligenciada no âmbito da psicologia social e por outro lado no âmbito da psicologia ambiental abordada essencialmente no contexto da identidade pessoal. O principal objectivo desta tese é trazer o estudo do lugar para o âmbito das relações intergrupais, recorrendo aos conceitos de identidade social e entitatividade desenvolvidos no âmbito da psicologia social. Em particular, esta tese tem por objectivo contribuir para a compreensão do impacto do lugar em que residimos de dois pontos de vista: do ponto de vista do residente, o lugar de residência como uma base para a auto-categorização e identificação, conduzindo a fenómenos de favoritismo pelo grupo próprio e discriminação em relação aos outros grupos; do ponto de vista do observador, o lugar de residência como uma fonte importante de informação para a formação de impressões sobre os seus residentes

Improving visual attractiveness to enhance city-river integration - a methodological approach for ongoing evaluation

The relationship between rivers and cities has evolved from a natural coexistence and interdependence to a progressive relationship of segregation and disintegration. This article uses a planning experiment to explore and discuss some concerns about visual attractiveness of city–river landscapes in promoting spatial integration of cities and rivers. It presents a methodological approach integrating expert opinions and public perception questionnaires. This is a contribution to making operational an ongoing aesthetic assessment of different dimensions and viewpoints at the city scale. This approach is illustrated with a case-study in the Lisbon metropolitan area and its main assessment results are integrated in a city–river profile that can be useful in ongoing evaluation processes of river landscapes and urban planning practice

Place Change and Identity Processes.

This study intents to examine the relationship between place change and identity process, using Breakwell’s model (1986, 1992) as framework. In the context of a process of imposed relocation in an old neighbourhood in Lisbon, two groups of residents were studied in two different moments along the relocation process. These two groups differ in terms of their choice of relocation. The generic hypothesis of the study is that relocation, and the residents’ choice changes the relation of the people with the space, the social relationships, and it has also an impact in the resident’s identity. The results show that the relocation process threats the identity principles in the two groups, but in different ways, depending of the residential choice, and also had impact in the social relationships and in the relation of the people with the space. As other studies (e.g.: Twigger-Ross and Uzzell, 1996; Speller, Lyons, and Twigger-Ross, 2002) this research underlines the relationship between changes in physical environment and identity, in the context of residential environment

Urban identity and tourism: different looks, one single place

‘Urban identity’ is high on the policy agenda and pervades the discourse of the planning community on the value of historical city centres. Unfortunately, there seems to be, until today, no proposal in scholarly literature of any unified conceptual framework or any tools to make identity operational. ‘Tourism’ takes advantage of this process, by seeking the qualities of the place, its authenticity and its perceived uniqueness that is grounded on the physical features as well as on the presence of local communities – their way of living and investing in the place. The interdependence between identity as perceived by tourists (external observer) and the identity of the residents rooted in the relationship with the place (in-group) are key to addressing the identity of historic urban areas. These issues are addressed in the context of the growing attractiveness of Lisbon, Portugal, using a historic neighbourhood as a case study. The findings, which are on a set of interviews with different groups of users, showed the points of convergence and divergence between the different groups’ views of the neighbourhood’s identity. This actor-oriented approach is pivotal to understanding the process and to produce knowledge for informed action

Urban neighbourhoods and intergroup relations: The importance of place identity

The aim of this paper is to bring the concept of place identity into the context of intergroup relationships in urban place, using the social identity approach. A field study was conducted in four adjacent neighbourhoods in the city of Lisbon, in order to explore the influence of place identity on the perception of the participants’ own neighbourhood and its residents (in-group) and of the other neighbourhoods and their residents (out-groups). The results showed that place identity was highly correlated with neighbourhood satisfaction, relevant out-group differentiation, and favouritism to the in-group and depreciation of the relevant out-group. The results also enabled the identification of three types of possible relationships between the groups: a relevant out-group for comparison, an idealized reference group for approximation, and a devaluated group for avoidance. Moreover, in this study, we extend the predictions of SIA to the comprehension of specific distance estimation distortion patterns

Urban Identity and tourism:different looks, one single place

‘Urban identity’ is high on the policy agenda and pervades the discourse of the planning community on the value of historical city centres. Unfortunately, there seems to be, until today, no proposal in scholarly literature of any unified conceptual framework or any tools to make identity operational. ‘Tourism’ takes advantage of this process, by seeking the qualities of the place, its authenticity and its perceived uniqueness that is grounded on the physical features as well as on the presence of local communities – their way of living and investing in the place. The interdependence between identity as perceived by tourists (external observer) and the identity of the residents rooted in the relationship with the place (in-group) are key to addressing the identity of historic urban areas. These issues are addressed in the context of the growing attractiveness of Lisbon, Portugal, using a historic neighbourhood as a case study. The findings, which are on a set of interviews with different groups of users, showed the points of convergence and divergence between the different groups’ views of the neighbourhood’s identity. This actor-oriented approach is pivotal to understanding the process and to produce knowledge for informed action

Un mundo en transformación: afrontando riesgos ambientales, sociales y económicos

‘At a time when disaster potential is on the increase, the coping mechanisms of many societies appear to have become less effective. In parallel with a rise in hazard potential, vulnerability has increased […]. Given these recent challenges, the world is in urgent need of organizing a concerted effort to deal with systemic risks’ (Renn, 2008, p. 62). Today’s complex and systemic nature of risks has increasingly dissipated the traditional boundaries between risk assessment, risk perception and social coping mechanisms (Renn, 2008). Individuals and societies are now faced with multiple risks in their everyday lives, that although being different in nature — environmental, social, economic, … — may demand integrated individual and social responses to cope with them. In accordance, changes in one dimension (e.g., environmental) may determine changes in other dimensions (e.g., social, economic) and associated risks can emerge. However, the effect of these changes goes beyond a simple additive effect of each of them. Given that changes occur in a system, a risk that emerges in one dimension may pose a threat or a challenge to the entire system and may interact with processes that may take place at other dimensions, motivating responses in the form of individual and social coping

A psycho-enviromental analysis of a forest fire: emotions, risk perception and changes in bonds with the place

In August of 2012 there was a forest fire in La Gomera (Canary Islands, Spain) that incinerated 7.7% of the total area of a Biosphere Reserve. Approximately a quarter of the population were evacuated. 266 people were interviewed after the forest fire. Pollsters, resident on the island, administered a questionnaire collecting information on impact, coping, emotions and bonds with the place and risk perception before and after the fire. The reliability of the scales was adequate. The results show that perceived restorativeness decreased after the fire but place identity and place attachment remained stable. Other results show that the processes of identity with the place and cognitive and behavioral coping strategies are related to positive emotions, while negative emotions are associated with a greater degree of bonding.Universidad de Málaga. Campus de Excelencia Internacional Andalucía Tech

Propostas pedagógicas e a função da coordenação pedagógica na mediação do trabalho docente

Orientadora : Profª Ms. Adriana Teles de SouzaMonografia (especialização) - Universidade Federal do Paraná, Setor de Educação, Curso de Especialização em Coordenação PedagógicaInclui referênciasResumo : O presente estudo teve como objetivo investigar a função da coordenação na mediação do trabalho docente, em relação às propostas pedagógicas, nas falas dos professores de Educação Física do município de Mandaguaçu, no Paraná. Para tanto, realizou-se uma breve revisão bibliográfica – com informações de livros, artigos e sites indexados –, que segundo Gil (2007), tem como principal vantagem o fato de permitir uma cobertura mais ampla acerca daquilo que se deseja investigar, de modo a subsidiar o entendimento sobre o assunto do trabalho. Na sequência, foi realizada uma pesquisa de levantamento (Survey), que para Rea & Parker (2000), de uma maneira cientificamente rigorosa, permite revelar características de instituições e/ou comunidades, a partir do estudo de indivíduos que as representam. Com uma amostra constituída por 7 (sete) professores – aqui denominados P1, P2, P3, P4, P5, P6 e, P7 –, concluiu-se que a maioria dos professores investigados deposita na figura do coordenador pedagógico responsabilidade maior que a que ele realmente possui, uma vez que apenas dois professores destacaram que o mesmo "auxilia" ou "media". No que se refere à compreensão dos professores investigados em relação às propostas pedagógicas evidenciadas pela coordenação, todos ressaltaram apenas pontos positivos acerca das reuniões de Planejamento e do que é trabalhado/discutido na mesma. Por fim, os professores destacaram que colocam em prática o que é proposto, sempre adaptando à realidade de seus alunos e da escola em que atua

A depressão no adolescente com epilepsia idiopática: Estudo exploratório

Neste estudo procura-se detectar a presença de traços depressivos em adolescentes com epilepsia idiopática, partindo de duas hipóteses: a vivência depressiva apareceria em consequência, ou estaria de algum modo relacionada com a crise e os reflexos psicológicos e sociais desta ou a depressão poderia surgir em consequência da vivência de factores psicológicos desencadeadores da crise. Para isso investigámos num grupo de adolescentes com diagnóstico de epilepsia idiopática a presença de traços depressivos através de um escala de índices de depressão na prova Rorschach. Dadas as características da amostra, número reduzido de sujeitos, dificuldades em controlar determinadas variáveis parasitas, não foi possível confirmar a hipótese formulada. Contudo, permitiu circunscrever o problema e formular interrogações que nos enviam para outras linhas de investigação