Reconstrucția imaginii orașului Chișinău în baza asocierilor libere ale elevilor ruși
Reconstruction of the image of Chisinau City based on the free associations of the Russian students

Summary/Abstract: The present article analyses the image of Chisinau City in the perception of the Russian students. Nowadays limited studies on local urban images are known. The concept “image of the city” of Kevin Lynch and the Model of the City in three layers by Sveatoslav Murunov were used as theoretical frames. Russian students participated in the field research and offered their associations to the word “Chisinau” («Кишинев»). The results of the research showed that the associations with high frequency compose the associative array “homeland” and “native city”, followed by emblematic places in the city and associations with the urban infrastructure. Analysed through the model of Murunov, the majority of the associations refer to the third layer of the city – the emotional one and have a positive connotation. The associations with the urban infrastructure – the first layer of the city, are negative. The second layer of the city – the social relations was less evoked through the associations. The study concludes that for the Russian students the image of Chisinau consist of the native city, emotional connection, central places and elements of infrastructure. The respondents have a positive image of the city, even if this image is not evoked often and they see the urban aspects that need improvement measures (the physical urban infrastructure and the development of social relations).

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