Territorial attachment in urban communities

• Author: Mihai Pascaru
• Position: University from Alba Iulia
• Pages: 83-90

Bulletin of the Transilvania University of Braşo v

Series VII: Social Sciences • Law • Vol. 11 (60) No. 2 - 2018

TERRITORIAL ATTACHMENT IN URBAN

COMMUNITIES

Mihai PASCARU1

Abstract: The paper reviews a series of results from several territorial

attachment and pride surveys. Territorial pride is seen as a direct expression of

territorial attachment. The core of the data was collected in two surveys

administered in the city of Alba Iulia, Romania in 2012 and 20 16. Some common

conclusions have been stated at the end of the study. They refer to several

predictors of territorial attachment like gender, level of education etc., as well as

to the connection between attachment and the critical spirit of the inhabi tants.

Key words: territorial attachment, territorial pride, self-identification,

critical spirit.

1. Preliminaries

In a recent study, we noticed that the territorial attachment notion is being invoked

within different contexts and in different disciplines ranging from geography, migration

studies and social psychology to sociology and marketing (Pascaru, 2017, pp. 24-25). We

were mentioning in that context that Irène Micha and Dina Vaiou (2015) were looking at

the multicultural neighbourhoods of Athens, w here they identified specific forms of

attachment. These forms of attachment involved a familiarisation with diversity, led to

controversies and required enormous investments in time and effort in order to obtain

the harmonisation of the relationships among inhabitants with different cultural

background (p. 174). Such neighbourhoods, we remarked , can become battlefields and

are prime sources of fear and insecurity; and that the state of things tends to

deteriorate further during periods of crises (Pascaru, 2017, p. 25).

In the same 2017 study (p. 25), we also mentioned that a different form of connection

between the territorial attachment and patrimony was identified by Bianca Botea-

Coulaud (2013). To begin with, the researcher made a series of observations on the

distinction between house and home (Botea-Co ulaud, 20 13, p. 261). The sentiment of

being at home, the author said, can become a driver of return migration. The particular

case Botea-Coulaud was looking at was that of the Swabians returning home to Jimbolia

(Romania) even after having obtained residence and living for many years after that in

their ancestors' original home country of Germany. One interesting aspect of this case

was that the feeling of being "at home" was in part supported by elements of collective

memory and of patrimony grouped around the local Swabian museum.

1 “1 Decembrie 1918” University fro m Alba Iulia, mihaipascarupag@gmail.com