THE CITY AS A MULTIPLACE SYSTEM - AN ANALYSIS OF PEOPLE URBAN-ENVIRONMENT TRANSACTIONS

The aim of the study is to ascertain how a large and complex urban setting like the city of Rome becomes a 'place' for its inhabitants, with special reference to the kind of activities performed by the inhabitants within (intra-place analysis) and among (inter-place analysis) the following different 'sub-places': the neighbourhood, the city-centre and the periphery. In accordance with the place theory, which stresses the purposive and organized nature of the individual experience of place, an attempt has been made to demonstrate the greater explanatory potential of inter-place analysis, compared with intra-place analysis, for understanding the interdependence between persons and urban places. A sample of 434 inhabitants, all living in the same neighbourhood and differing in gender, age and sociocultural level, were considered. A multivariate analysis of the data, collected from the inhabitants' self-reports, showed the existence of (i) different patterns of activities, both inside and among the various urban places considered, and (ii) a different typology of inhabitants corresponding to these patterns of activities. By analysing the residents' 'inter-place urban pragmatics', several modalities were identified as means by which the city is built up as a multi-place system by the residents. This multi-place system was found to have various spatial extensions and complexities, which were a function of both the residents' urban pragmatics and their sociodemographic and cultural characteristics. © 1990 Academic Press Limited.