THE SIGNIFICANCE OF PUBLIC PLACES TO THE PEOPLE OF

BUCARAMANGA

This research was conducted over the course of the subject of Nucleo Integrador, by the
students sebastian patio, Daniela Rueda and Jonathan Fornaris
Overview
Our research illustrates how a sensitive study driven by environmental psychological
concepts can make a contribution to enhancing the quality of life of city residents,
employing techniques that explore the resonant signs and symbols of the psycho-social
history of the city with a view to enhancing residents sense of place and identity.
Despite the rich history and importance of public spaces in general and plazas in
Colombian culture, this research demonstrates that, such places have not been immune
from the onslaught of the forces and failures of capital investment. Perhaps, unlike many
other cities in the world, successive governments in Bucaramanga haven't realized the
importance of public spaces and haven't sought to protect and enhance them for the
"satisfaction of collective urban needs, and to increase the amount of public spaces
available for the benefit of the citizens of Bucaramanga.

Research Question

Given the scarcity of studies on the city in the social and psychological aspects,
knowledge of how individuals represent it, the meanings assigned to them, the
emotionality associated with the places that they recognize and the use made of them,
can get to give guidelines to strengthen the identity of its people and its future
development plan.
In line with this, the question arises: How the people of Bucaramanga conceptualizes and
evaluates some public places?

Objective
This question led us to propose the following objective: Explore the meanings that the
inhabitants of the city assigned to public places of Bucaramanga.

Design and Methodology

Overall approach

This research was conducted in the framework of a qualitative methodology. This from the
Ethnomethodology perspective which focuses on the way people make sense of their
everyday world.

Method

Participants: We recruited 29 subjects (10 male, 8 female) from Bucaramanga city, ranging
in age from 20 to 60 years old, who voluntarily participated in this experiment. Informed
consent was obtained from all participants. We considered as inclusion
criteria, the stratum-socioeconomic diversity, and that participants at the time of the
study were living in the metropolitan area of Bucaramanga.

Instruments: Two techniques of data collection were included:

A semistructured interview individually, and an open type of interview known as
Multiple item classification.

Methods of data analysis

This process was performed using the technique of qualitative content analysis, which
defines itself within the framework of an empirical approach, methodically controlled
analysis of text within their contexts of communication.
Procedure
To carry out the interviews, each participant was given 16 cards, which contained printed a
significant place of the city. They were asked individually to perform different
classifications of the places represented in them. Subsequently, we conducted a content
analysis of the information obtained through interviews, so that a process of categorization
resulted in a final matrix of categories, which led to interpreting relationships between
variables and identify personal constructs that reflect the meanings assigned by the
Bucaramanga people to public spaces.

Results

Who took part in this research they agree on the level of satisfaction with the diversity of
parks that function as central elements of the public. Similarly, most share a high level of
awareness of abandonment and uprooting by significant places in the city, such as
museums, libraries and parks. It was then identified as participants recognize the
importance of generating more debate on the issue of public places to improve the quality
of life, as the conflicting nature of the space in relation to its privatization and
commercialization.

The variety of constructs used is a concrete proof of the diversity and richness of the
experiences of people on public places. The "place function" construct was the most used
by respondents, indicating that the representation we have of public places is the use or the
rules that define it.

This research allowed us to visualize the lack of public places that are promoters of a sense
of ownership and pride in the public space, as well as the need to balance the distribution of
public places in all areas of the city, particularly in neighborhoods lower strata.

Finally, we highlight that the city stands a huge source of learning opportunities. Its
diversity of lifestyles and facilities constitute occasions for learning, but education policies

should promote Bucaramanga make this accessible and useful in the process of educating
the citizen information.

Objectives
The general purpose of the research was built an understanding of how the people of
Bucaramanga city conceive of, and value, the public places of their city.