IDENTITY + PLACE MEANINGS

Identity and Place Meanings

Architecture is a rich material expression of political power. It can not only host explicit symbolic references but can be indicative of more implicit politics through its ties to state funding, shifts in economic industries, erasure of existing property, and exclusion of certain societal groups through programming. Thus, in relation to state-led construction, examining political rhetoric in architecture can provide great insight into the objectives of governments as they relate to state, sub-state, and international politics, particularly at times of political transition. Architecture is also capable of encompassing the everyday narratives of a population itself, a process that complicates and adds nuance to those narratives first formulated by the commissioning client. This domain of understanding meaning in architecture represents a crucial area of research, as core questions related to collective identity are ultimately as fundamental to successful urban development as security and economic structures. Indeed, misguided development policies could lead to the counterproductive deterioration of both national security and economic prosperity. Foregrounding developments in Eurasia, this work delves into issues of identity and place meanings.

Our work on identity and place meanings can be found at:

COURSES

Urban Transformations in Post-Soviet Eurasia (Graduate-Undergraduate)

Instructors: D. Sichinava

School: Carleton University, Summer 2021, 2022, 2023

The cities of post-Soviet Eurasia are home to two-thirds of the area’s population, making them crucial arenas for assessing broader societal shifts in the region. Modern Eurasian cities were transformed dramatically due to Soviet urbanization, further taking shape following the collapse of the USSR with each country’s varied approach to post-independence economic reforms and governance. This course aims to provide students with an overarching understanding of these processes through the lens of urban transformations, with lectures grounded in a range of interdisciplinary academic literature, multimedia, news stories, and popular culture. The course is structured around weekly thematic topics with several city case studies, including the drivers of Soviet and post-Soviet urbanization; the political economy of urban development; housing, informality, and inequality; heritage preservation; urban social movements; and contested place meanings.

Cities as Sites of Memory: Post-Socialist Place Meaning and Contested History (Undergraduate)

Instructors: S. Harris-Brandts & D. Sichinava

School: International Black Sea University (IBSU), Spring 2019

This course examines how cities perform as sites of collective memory and identity, focusing on city development in former socialist countries. Memory and place meanings are approached in an interdisciplinary manner that draws from Architecture, Urban Planning, Geography, Political Science, Sociology, and Philosophy. Classes offer students a broad theoretical and methodological framing of memory in cities, as well as key examples from case studies. The course emphasizes: the tensions between new urban development and heritage in cities; the politics of memory and power struggles for place meanings; the subjective nature of experience in cities and how places can carry multiple histories; and the ways in which different actors work together to define memory and place meanings.

PUBLICATIONS

Sichinava, D. (2021). A view of the pandemic from the city of balconies. In Gurgenidze, T. (Ed.). Eastern Block Stories: Visualising Housing Estates from Post-Socialist Cities. 134-140. DOM Publishers.

Harris-Brandts, S., & Sichinava, D. (2021). Architecture and friendship among nations: the shifting politics of cultural diplomacy in Tbilisi, Georgia. International Journal of Heritage Studies, 27 (12). Taylor & Francis, 1213-1229.

Gogishvili, D. (2021). Competing for space in Tbilisi: transforming residential courtyards to parking in an increasingly car-dependent city. Eurasian Geography and Economics, 1-27.

Harris-Brandts, S., & Polese, A. (2021). Between Sotsgorod and Bazaar: Urbanization Dynamics in Central Asia. In Van den Bosch, J. Fauve, A. & De Cordier, B. (Eds.), European Handbook of Central Asian Studies: History, Politics and Societies. 887-922. Hanover, Germany: Ibidem-Verlag.

Gogishvili, D. (2020). [Book Review] City of the future: built space, modernity and urban change in Astana. Mateusz Laszczkowski. Berghahn Books. Eurasian Geography & Economics.

Harris-Brandts, S., & Sichinava, D. (2022). The Politics of Urban Recovery in a Stalinist-era Resort Town: Heritage Tourism and Displaced Communities in Tskaltubo, Georgia. In Al-Harithy, H. (Ed.), Urban Recovery: Intersecting Displacement with Post War Reconstruction. Routledge.

Harris-Brandts, S. (2020). [Book Review] Iconic Planned Communities and the Challenge of Change. Corbin Sies, M., Gournay, I, and Freestone, R. (Eds.). University of Pennsylvania Press. Journal of Historical Geography.

Rekhviashvili, L., Sichinava, D., & Berikishvili, E. (2020). Urban protest movements in Tbilisi: movements are strong, but big capital is stronger. In Dariyeva, T., & Neugebauer, C.S. (Eds.), Urban Activism in Eastern Europe and Eurasia. DOM Publishers.

Trubina, E., Gogishvili, D., Imhof, N., & Müller, M. (2020). A part of the world or apart from the world? The postsocialist Global East in the geopolitics of knowledge. Eurasian Geography and Economics. 61(6): 636-662.

Harris-Brandts, S. (2018). The Role of Architecture in the Republic of Georgia’s European Aspirations. Nationalities Papers. 46 (6), Taylor & Francis, 1118-1135.

Harris-Brandts, S. (2017). ‘Europe Started Here’: Nation Building and Myth Production in the Republic of Georgia, Thresholds Journal. 45, Myth, MIT Press, 124-135.

Harris-Brandts, S. (2016). Decentralize, Desecularize, and Deregulate! The transformation of Kutaisi, Georgia. In MONU Journal , 25 Independent Urbanism, 86-91. Bruil & van de Staaij.

Harris-Brandts, S. (2017). Georgia and the South Caucasus. In S. Piesik (Ed.), HABITAT: Vernacular Architecture for a Changing Planet. London, UK: Thames & Hudson.

PRESENTATIONS

2022 - Bosch Alumni Network’s Sustainability Talks 2021. Berlin, Germany (*online); 30 November 2021. “Greenwashing for State Power Gain: The Manipulation of Iconic Eco Designs under Eurasia’s Authoritarian Regimes.” Harris-Brandts, S.

2020 - Association for Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies (ASEEES) Annual Convention Washington, D.C., USA; November 2020 “Urban Ingenuity in Late-Communist and Post-Communist "Dystopias." Paper: Soviet Paradise Lost? Decline, Renewal, and Fetishized Imaginaries of Tskaltubo, Georgia. Harris-Brandts, S., & Sichinava, D. *Cancelled due to COVID-19

2019 - 19th Annual Aleksanteri Conference: Technology, Culture, and Society in Eurasian Space Helsinki, Finland; October 2019 “Projecting the Future: Novel Technologies of Spectacle in Nur-Sultan, Kazakhstan” University of Helsinki. Gogishvili, D. & Harris-Brandts, S.

2018 - Association for Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies (ASEEES) Annual Convention Boston, MA, USA; December 2018 *Session Co-Organizers “Nostalgia and Urban Change: The Roles of Selective Remembering and Forgetting in Transforming Post-Socialist Cities.” Harris-Brandts, S., & Sichinava, D.

2017 - American Association of Geographers (AAG) Annual Meeting Boston, MA, USA; April 2017 “The Role of Architecture in Post-Soviet Georgia’s European As pirations.” Harris-Brandts, S.