Representation of Urban Identity of Mskheta Residents in the Image of the City

Abstract

Abstract After the collapse of the Soviet Union the political, social and economic changes affected every spare of the life of the citizens as well as the most of the institutions. The postsocialist cities similarly undergo the rapid changes due to the migrations, privatizations, large scale illegal constructions and chaotic urban development (Tsenkova, 2012, Mariotti & Koželj, 2016). While studying the urban planning in post-socialist cities Sasha Tsenkova admits, that ‘urban-planning reforms have been initiated decade after the fall of communist regimes in an environment dominated by arguments for restricting planning and favoring private entrepreneurship’ (2012). Similarly, to the other postsocialist states, the Georgian state started to pay attention to the urban planning issue later and started to work on the general urban plan developments in the second decade of twenty-first century. Beside the capital of Georgia, the urban planning processes started in the relatively small-size cities. The focus of our work is the urban development trends of historical capital of Georgia – Mtskheta. The project aims to conserve of the historical image of the city in order to keep the status of UNESCO world cultural heritage.  Alongside this process the strengthening of historic image of Mtskheta city became essential. Dirk Verheyen connects image of the city with the urban identity and presents it as “two sides of the coin” as “cities endeavor to sell their internal identity as external image” (Verheyen, 1997: 44). The urban identities are designed historically and it composes city architecture, monuments, cultural life, human, economic activities, street names and so on. According to Visar Hoxha, Kaliopa Dimitrovska Andrews and Alenka Temeljotov Salaj (2014) the relationship between the space and identity is equivocal as residents get their inspirations from the local surroundings (which strengthens their identity) as well as express their identities “in the material culture of brick, stone, marble and concrete, just as they do in literature and art” (2014:77). The aim of the article is to study the factors determining the Mtskheta Urban identity. The paper  is based on the qualitative and quantitative researches done among the population of Mtskheta in 2019 financed by the Partnership “Akolis” who is responsible entity for preparing the Master Plan of Mskheta City. Within the quantitative research survey covered 465 local residents (using stratified sample design); The method for collecting information was face-to-face interviews using structured questionnaire. Withing the qualitative research eight focus groups were conducted (6-9 participants in each group). The article discusses the theoretical debates about the factors determining urban identity formation, which appear to be very unique for each settlement. In case of Mtskheta, these factors are ecosystem of the city, religious monuments, difference from the current capital and importance of local’s ownership rights. The difference between the attitudes of younger and elderly generations gives us possibility to predict that, in future, within the urban identity the role of archeological sites and civic interests will increase while the locals might pay more attention to the positions of international actors. Although at the stage designing the Master plan of Mtskheta seems to be led by external actors, development of local urban identity will not become true unless the local history and market strategies of local entrepreneurs will start to work out  (Zukin, 2011).