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Affective dimension in cognitive maps of Barcelonaand Sao Paulo

Zulmira Aurea Cruz Bomfim

Universidade Federal do Ceara, Brazil

Enric Pol Urrutia

Universitat de Barcelona, Spain

This paper analyses the relationship between city and affection as revealed through an investigation into thefeelings and emotions of a sample of inhabitants of Barcelona and Sao Paulo towards their cities. A study ofaffection 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 citys 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 answersome 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 1835, 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 Sao 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 citys inhabitants.

Ce travail analyse la relation entre la ville et laffectivite dans le cadre dune recherche sur les sentiments et lesemotions quun echantillon de citoyens de Barcelone et de Sao Paulo ressentent envers leur ville. Etudierlaffectivite dans le contexte de la ville part de la supposition quun possible developpement dune rationalite

ethique-affective est capable de produire des espaces dinteret public et prive, dimension qui peut optimiser

laction des habitants de la ville. Le point de vue theorique/methodologique adopte a ete essentiellement

interdisciplinaire mais de base psychosociale, comme le montre linstrument de recueil des renseignements. La

dimension affective de la ville a ete evaluee par des entretiens individuels et par un questionnaire administre en

groupes. Lors de ladministration du questionnaire, on a demande aux participants deffectuer un dessin

representant leur ville et de repondre a quelques questions sur le dessin quils venaient de faire. Lechantillon

comprend 200 participants, de Barcelone et de Sao Paulo a egalite. La plupart etaient ages entre 18 et 35 ans,

etaient des etudiants universitaires de premier cycle ou ayant gradue, avec une plus forte presence de femmes et

dhabitants des banlieues metropolitaines des villes etudiees. Les renseignements qualitatifs ont ete classes selon

leurs signification et contenu, en suivant les categories qui avaient ete etablies lors de letude pilote. Ces categoriessont les suivantes: contrastes, insecurite, attrait et appartenance. Une analyse statistique fut realisee aupres des

categories resultantes. Apres les avoir categorisees, cataloguees et qualifiees par des metaphores, les reponses ont

fourni les images suivantes: ville de contraste, ville dattraction, ville de destruction, ville de surprises, ville de

mouvements et ville belle. Ces images montrent des sentiments et des emotions sur Barcelone et Sao Paulo qui

agissent comme des representations. Ceci nous renvoi au besoin dune revision de la dimension affective dans la

structure de signification des cartes mentales proposees par Lynch. Consequemment, la nouvelle categorie

de cartes affectives est proposee comme etant celle qui articule les significations affectives et permet une approche

# 2005 International Union of Psychological Science

http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals/pp/00207594.html DOI: 10.1080/00207590444000122

Correspondence should be addressed to Zulmeira Aurea Cruz Bomfim, Universidade Federal do Ceara, Avenida da Univerdidade

2762, Campus do Benfica, , 60.020-180 Fortaleza-Ceara-Brazil (E-mail: [email protected]).).

INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF PSYCHOLOGY, 2005, 40 (1), 3750


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du degre destimation pour la ville, deux aspects qui jouent un role de reference dans limplication et la

participation des citoyens.

Este trabajo analiza la relacion entre ciudad y afectividad a partir de una investigacion sobre los sentimientosy emociones de una muestra de habitantes de Barcelona y Sao Paulo tienen hacia su ciudad. Estudiar laafectividad en el contexto de la ciudad parte del supuesto de que es posible el desarrollo de una racionalidad

etico-afectiva en la generacion de espacios de interes publico y privado, dimension que puede optimizar la accion

de los habitantes de la ciudad. El enfoque teorico/metodologico adoptado fue esencialmente interdisciplinario,pero de base psicosocial, como se refleja en el instrumento de recogida de datos. Para evaluar la dimension

afectiva de la ciudad, se realizaron entrevistas individuales y se aplico un cuestionario de autocumplimentacion en

situacion de grupos. Se les pidio 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 anos,

mayoritariamente estudiantes de licenciatura y postgrado, con mayor presencia de mujeres y de residentes en

las areas metropolitanas de las ciudades estudiadas. Los datos cualitativos fueron clasificados segun su

significado y contenido, siguiendo las categoras que se haban establecido en la prueba piloto. Estas categor as

son las siguientes: contrastes, inseguridad, agradabilidad y pertenencia. Posteriormente se aplico un analisis

estadstico a las categoras resultantes. Despues de haber categorizado, catalogado y calificado por metaforas, las

respuestas proporcionaron las siguientes imagenes: ciudad de contrastes, ciudad atractiva, ciudad destructiva,

ciudad de sorpresas, ciudad con movimiento y ciudad bella. Estas imagenes muestran sentimientos y emociones

sobre Barcelona y Sao Paulo que actuan como representaciones. Esto plantea la necesidad de una revision de la

dimension afectiva en la estructura de significado de los mapas cognitivos propuesto por Lynch. Como resultado,

se propone la categora 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 implicacion y participacion

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 percep-

tion 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 citys

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 that could facilitate the

process of reaching the intangible.

The drawing and discourse of the inhabitants ofBarcelona and Sao 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 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 interdisciplinary dimensions:

social psychology, environmental psychology,

sociology, geography, architecture, and urbanism.

However, the predominant dimension is a con-

fluence of social and environmental psychology

through investigation of the affective category.

Affect, as a category of social and environ-

mental psychology, is seen, in the present study, as

the synthesis of the interface between the indivi-

dual 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 ofFortaleza (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, Domcio, & 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 administra-

tions. 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

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in its everyday life in the city. What the inhabitants

really need is to be heard and be taken into

consideration.

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 worthinessof 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 aneven distribution of goods and services. The city, on

the one hand, can be a territory where new levels of

consciousness can be raised, labour organized, and

political expedience instrumented to enable the

humanizing of a community. On the other hand, it

can also 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, labour organization, and politicalexpedience. The organization of territory is

associated with the political transformation of

society. His idea of citizenship 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. According to him, today cultural

debates are left in the background so that they can

give way to economic power.

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 urbaniza-

tion 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 sym-

bolism and elements of space, reminding us that

the idea of social structures is sensitive to the

effects of spatial organization. They are strategi-

cally steered by the elite in power. In the language

of architects, there is a direct relation between

architectural creation and social life.

Lefebvre considers the need to investigate boththe 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, and 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 entertain-

ment, 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.

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 repre-

sentative 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 com-

munity so that individuals will be able to build on

it, thus becoming agents in the process of

emancipation.

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Construction in a city with input from its

citizens undergoes a process of authentic self-

esteem based on peoples participation and pro-

motes 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 andvisualization of any possible developmental impact

and action plans by the city allows for a sense and

a 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 into the city.

Social psychology and environmental psychol-

ogy have studied the relation between city and

symbolism of space. The city, while being a spatial

structure built for the community, reflects morethan just a physical structure, but also a dialogue

with the symbolic. The knowledge or the repre-

sentation that an individual has about their city is

in itself subjective and a collective fact, because it

is not only what exists concretely that gains

prominence in peoples 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 Tuam (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 neighbourhood, 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 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. 6).

The meaning of urban space has been men-

tioned in environmental psychology as an impor-

tant factor in understanding ones surroundings,

especially in the context of human value develop-

ment (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 con-

cerning its affection, emotions, sentiments, or evenperhaps the possibility of considering affection as a

leading force in city space, in addition to perception

and representation.

In this study cognitive maps will be considered

as expressions of the symbolic in the interaction of

the individual and their environment. Maps

appear to be a method of movement and as a

way to make known the unknown, using cities, the

environment, communities, etc. The affection

dimension may be present in the cognitive map

of the city, so it will be discussed.

The development of cognitive maps is aprocedure through 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

neighbourhoods in relation to others. The method

of elaborating these maps is to externalize them so

that experiences are gathered from interviewees in

a way that can be observed. Afterwards, the maps

precision is analysed 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, study-

ing the cities of Paris and New York through

cognitive mapping and drawings of mental maps.

Seen from different approaches, one study may

have different results. They consider the social and

cognitive dimensions to be fundamental in under-

standing the environment, in perfect tune with the

social psychology approach in which they see the

inseparable subjectobject 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 populations daily routine,

because it tells us how dwellers build their reality

based on their cultural reality.

However, not every mental map may be

considered a social representation because others

do not necessarily share the same map of a citys

significant points. Milgram and Jodelet (1976)

pointed to the conditions under which a mental

map can be considered a social representation:

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first, that all internal models represent more social

objects; second, that characteristics have to be

shared in maps of a significant number of people;

and third, 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 spacecan be read. That is, there is a list of

recognizable symbols that determines whether a

city is more or less legible.

For Lynch, 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

environments 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 ofsurprise has a certain value in the environment.

The meaning given by the observer to an environ-

ments image is, for Lynch, one of the dimensions

that should be analysed in the urban space in the

city.

Lynchs theory discusses the images elements

(identity) and the spatial relationship of the object

and the observer with other objects (structures).

Each individual creates and takes his or her own

image, but there seem to be fundamental differ-

ences 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 is, an attempt by

environmental psychology to enlarge the space

representation theme over Lynchs (1998) and

Downs and Steas (1977) extreme reductionism

of cognitive maps. It is through cognitive maps

that social representations reach the urban envir-

onment 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 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 and 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 Lynchs 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 Lynchs 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, especiallyas 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), and

Downs and Stea (1977), developed the idea that

these are mental representations of reality, pro-

ducts of the psychological and perceptive processes

that allow definition and determine a spatial set

that carries great importance in human action and

conduct.Perception and cognition are, therefore, the

psychic dimensions considered for the process

representing the space and human conduct orien-

tation 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 establish-

ing citizenship? Traditionally, duality is present in

modern sciences, in the understanding of their

subject, requiring a more global wisdom that takes

subjects 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 origi-

nating 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.

Damasio (1998) sees emotions and feelings as

creators of central biological aspects, establishing

a bridge between the rational and nonrational

processes, between the cortex and the subcortex.

Nowadays one of the major challenges for social

and community psychology is the intervention that

splits the separation of mind and body, subjectiv-

ity and objectivity, reason and emotion, and at the



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same time enables integration between uniqueness

and the ordinary (Granjo, 1996).

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 from

one that can reach sensitive dimensions of emo-tions 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 and

ethical and political action, supported by

Espinozas philosophy of happiness. The author

says that in order to overcome the schism between

individual and commonality, or the idea of

subjectivity associated with social noncommit-

ment, individuality, and superficial feelings

brought on by post-modern societies, these maybreak down, thus enhancing the intensity of the

growth of happiness and the individuals potential

to exist. That is why searching for passions is a

way to seek out mans real possibilities and his

own emancipation.

What experiences favour 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 indivi-

duality 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.

They tried to collect more immediate emotions,

such as smells, sounds, imagespleasant and

unpleasant sensationsfrom several city neigh-

bourhoods, through distinct and expressive tech-

niques (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 citizen-

ship, to develop abilities as citizens, is a proposal

that could be fully experienced in the city as a

conquered space. For Valente-Pereira (1991),

rehabilitating the urban space means a whole

new urban policy for the purpose of revamping the

citys image, to regain the citys 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 todays 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 ones 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.

Micro-social and macro-social instances, dialo-

gues 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 Sao Paulo, mostly aged

18 to 35, the majority being women and native

inhabitants of the citys metropolitan area. They

were born and live in the city itself or in itsmetropolitan 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 Sao Paulo. Some were applied individually,

directly to the subject, in the presence of the

42 BOMFIM AND POL


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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

The data collected were submitted both to a

qualitative assessment (based on an analysis of the

drawings structure, according to Lynchs theory)

and to an interpretative analysis of the feelings,

especially as expressed by the summary words. The

drawings were classified into Lynchs categories:

landmarks, districts, paths, nodes, and edges, with

the incorporation of an additional category: meta-

phorical drawings, representing ideas, moods ormind states, apart from a citys structures.

The data were also quantified in a 010, four-

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 sociodemographic variables with affection.

The category ofcontrasts includes contradictory

feelings, emotions, and words with a positive/

negative polarization. Insecurity stands for refer-ences to what is unexpected, unstable, and some-

how negative. Pleasantness refers to positive

feelings and to connectivity. The belonging cate-

gory encompasses all the feelings, emotions, and

words of self-identification with ones place.

In accordance with Lynchs 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. Lynchs 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 analyse the images of Barcelona

and Sao Paulo, supported by the articulation of

responses from each individual, summarized in

affective maps, which include: drawing, signifi-

cance, quality, feeling, metaphor, and meaning. It

should be noted that, in the categories that relate

to drawings, only the classification between

metaphorical and isomorphic drawings (Lynch)

was considered. See the example in Table 1.

RESULTS: IMAGES OF BARCELONA

AND SAO PAULO

The images of the cities of Barcelona and Sao

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.

Note that Barcelona and Sao Paulo share a

common image: Both have been considered poles

of considerable attraction, and yet both haveconsiderable 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).

TABLE 1

Summary of process of categorization geared towards preparation of affective map of the city

Identification Structure Significance Quality Feelings Metaphor Meaning

No. *Lynchs

cognitive map:drawing of

monuments,

paths, limits,

confluence and

neighbourhood

Respondents

explanation ofdrawing

Attributes of

the drawingand of the city,

indicated by

the respondent

Respondents

affective responseto the drawing

and to the city

Respondents

comparisonbetween the

city and

something

else, which

serves for

elaboration

of metaphors

Interpretation

given by theinvestigator to

the articulation

of meaning

between the

city metaphors

and other

dimensions

attributed by

respondent

(quality and

feelings)

SexAge

Schooling

City

Length of residence

(if not local)

*Metaphor:

drawing which

expresses, by

analogy, the

feelings or

state of mind

of the

respondent



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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 the City of Attraction, due

to its job opportunities and cultural life. However, itis more strongly pictured as the City of Destruction,

with large numbers and amounts of buildings,

concrete, misery, and pollution, signs of decadence,

poverty, and extreme social differences. This nega-

tive image is not really associated with Barcelona.

Another significant image for Barcelona (17%) is

that of the Pleasant City. Answers referring to beauty,

colour, and pleasantness in this category reveal a strong

sense of belonging and childhood remembrances.

Another category for Barcelona (14%) and Sao

Paulo (8%) is that of the Surprising City,

continuously displaying a novelty that 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 aspect 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, colourful/grey, 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 other metaphor, the half-rottenred apple is apparently beautiful and can be

nutritious, but it has damaged parts: poverty,

prostitution, pollution, stress, and lack of safety.

As it happens, Sao Paulos contrasts are

particularly 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 pleasant-

ness and the joy of living there contrast with

TABLE 2Images of Barcelona (BCN) and Sao Paulo (SP), according to qualities and feelings of respondents from these cities

Images (order of importance) Quality of BCN and SP Feelings about BCN and SP

Contrasts Attraction/suffocation; noise/peace; clean/dirty;

pollution/nature; colourful/grey; rich/poor;

welcoming/mysterious

Cheerful/serious; happy/sad;

euphoria/depression;

acceptance/distancing; liberty/prison;

love/hate; coldness/warmth;

pleasure/displeasure; anxiety/hope

BCN (1st)

SP (1st)

Attraction Attractive; beautiful; cultural; diverse; opportunities;

leisure; interesting; pretty; varied; wealth; impressive;

multithemed; intercultural

Lovingness; happiness; love;

belonging; well-being; anger; affect;

absence; frustration; nostalgia;

admiration; solitude; pleasure;

emotional instability

BCN (2nd)

SP (3rd)

Destruction Massification; decadence; ecological imbalance;

artificiality; depreciation; ambiguity; individualism;

poverty; pollution; lack of space; suffocation;

isolation; anonymity; chaos; disorder; prostitution

Solitude; sadness; discouragement;

hate; conformity; despair; stress;

impotence; anxiety; lack of hope;

dissatisfaction; insensibility; anger;

disinterest; falsehood; horror;

uncaring; lack of support

BCN (6th)

SP (2nd)

Pleasantness Beauty; colour; nature Memories; pleasure; pertinence;

enjoyment; unconditionality;

love of life; joy

BCN (3rd)

SP (absent)

Movement Evolution; identity; transformation; unfinished

project; novelty

Ambiguity; hospitality; inhospitality;

strangeness; insecurityBCN (4th)

SP (4th)

Surprising Novelty; liberty; flexibility; openness; differentiation;

multiplicity

Curiosity; insecurity; isolation;

proximity; pertinenceBCN (5th)

SP (5th)

44 BOMFIM AND POL


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sadness and anger. Other contrasting feelings

found about Sao Paulo are: euphoria/depression,

acceptance/refusal, proximity/distance, freedom/

imprisonment, love/hate, coldness/warmth, relaxa-

tion/hurry, day (routine)/night (serenity, freedom),

angst/confidence, satisfaction/deception, pride/

frustration, despair/hope, comfort/confusion.

There are seemingly paradoxical qualities suchas: 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, Sao 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. Anothersubject, a 21-year old, expresses an ambiguous

feeling about Sao Paulo by saying that she loves

her city and yet cannot stand it at times.

City of Attraction

The image of Barcelona as the City of Attraction is

distinguished mainly 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

of choice. 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 feasible for the individual.

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 centres,

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.

In Sao Paulo, the City of Attraction is especially

characterized by the chance to gain 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 ones 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, soli-

tude, 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 ambig-

uous: It is either a boat city or a sewer city in

its characteristic solitude and isolation.

In Sao Paulo, decadence is expressed by pressure,

hassle, and the impossibility of staying neutral.

Massification takes precedence over individuality.

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,

illness, disease (respiratory problems), and death.

The most common feelings are: sadness, gloom,resignation, hopelessness, impotence, angst, soli-

tude, lack of union and affection, indifference,

dissatisfaction, apathy, fear, dread, restlessness,

stress, discomfort, annoyance, separation, insensi-

bility, coldness, heedlessness, disloyalty, anger,

horror, hatred, despair, abandonment, superficial-

ity, impersonality, indifference, selfishness, diver-

sity, imprisonment, massification, chaos, disorder.

Sao 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 encou-

rage the expression of positive feelings.

City of Movement

The idea of the City of Movement, 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



10/15

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 Sao 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 City of Movement in Sao

Paulo, as startling as an alarm clock, sometimes

resembling New York City. In Sao Paulo, movement

is dynamism; in Barcelona, it is transformation.

However, both cities appear rather similar when it

comes to peoples 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

belonging. In Sao 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

mountains prevail in Barcelona.

Answers referring to beauty, colour, and plea-

santness fall into this category, and reveal a strong

sense of belonging and childhood remembrances.

Here are feelings of pleasure in enjoying ones 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 Sao Paulo not giving any such answers.

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

46 BOMFIM AND POL


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Considering the order of importance of the

appearance of images of Barcelona and Sao Paulo,

two differences should be pointed out, especially

amongst images of attraction, destruction, and

pleasantness, whilst similarity is to be found in theimages of contrasts, movement, and surprises.

The drawings

In both samples, metaphoric drawings occurred

less frequently than isomorphic ones. In

Barcelona, the main features found in isomorphic

drawings (cognitive maps) were landmarks: 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; and a node:

Plaza de Catalunya. Sao Paulos sample showed

far fewer icons, one of the most recurrent being the

Paulista Avenue.

STATISTICAL ANALYSIS OF

QUALITATIVE DATA

With regard to the statistical organization of the

qualitative data, the variables of item 5 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

peoples affection for the cities in which they live,

Figure 2. Drawing of Sao Paulo that shows the image of contrasts.



12/15

without ignoring the possible interference of othersociodemographic 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 being

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.

CONCLUSION: ON COGNITIVE AND

AFFECTIVE MAPS

The present paper shows the importance of

affection as a means to assess an individuals

feeling of appropriation and orientation in his/her

city.

The drawings and discourse of the inhabitants

of Barcelona and Sao Paulo show how emotions

and feelings can work as driving vectors in the

assessment of peoples esteem towards their city,

which is essential for their participation in city life

as true citizens.

The metaphors are, par excellence, the linguisticform 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 elabor-

ating too much on them.

Therefore, in a parallel between metaphors and

feelings, both can be said to have one characteristicin common: the cultivation of intimacy. Both reflect

reality as it is 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 these characteristics, the metaphor

allows for systematic procedures geared towards

the development of a methodology of affection

apprehension.

Figure 3. Drawing of Barcelona that shows the image of attractiveness.

48 BOMFIM AND POL


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The initial plan was to extract affective maps

from cognitive ones, assuming that subjects would

draw the latter. Surprisingly, although the subjectswere making a drawing of the city, there was not

necessarily any spatial orientation or location in

terms of Lynchs cognitive maps.

Maps always convey location, which is not

necessarily true for images. Maps, on the contrary,

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 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 mean-

ings 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

action-transformation. Image-based appropriation

fosters identification, not action-transformation.

This analysis applies indistinctly to Barcelona

and Sao Paulo, but a few differences are note-

worthy. 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 Sao Paulo. Indeed, Barcelona

currently has a policy of investment in mar-

ginal 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 Sao 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 not dealt with because their

reference objects are neither used nor appro-

priatednot because people are unaware of their

existence. Sao Paulo has a history, and historical

buildings, but only one subject mentioned Patio do

Colegio as a symbol of the city.

On the other hand, metaphorical drawings

occurred more frequently in Sao 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, reversing the present social

marginalization and urban disqualification so as to

raise the citys self-esteem. Urban re-qualification

projects are a possible means to improve it, as

long as they are based on participative interven-

tions and oriented towards the construction of

responsible citizenship.

These findings point to an affection-oriented

citizenship, considered a social-spatial conduct.

Figure 4. Index of affective categories in Barcelona and Sao Paulo according to respondents.



14/15

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 admin-

istrators, who favour a positive relationship

between individuals and city and consider the urban

space to be an extension of the individuals identity.

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