Sociological Research Perspectives Of Urban Symbolism

This article is based on a research conducted within an European project aimed at developing a strategy for the promotion and fruition of cultural heritage in Dolj county, Romania and the district of Vidin, Bulgaria. Urban area research in the conditions of the globalized societies is limited by the alternation between the general phenomena encountered in all cases in cities and the problems affecting the evolution of cities. The general features eliminate the possibility of an identity profile of the cities, and the solutions offered result from the gross comparison of certain development indicators. Differences between them become dimensions of urban development strategies. But reality has shown that imitation of successful models without a minimum of adaptive effort is not enough. Successful recipes do not provide guarantees for multiplication in different contexts from the point of view of the level of urbanism and different historical experiences. In most cases, the measures and investments made do not bring an increase in the life quality and do not favor social cohesion. The adverse effects are perpetuated over time, and the costs of rebuilding cities as communities become considerable. The study of possible alternatives to understanding the urban environment also brings to the attention of completing the significance of statistical data with meanings resulting from a more complex understanding of the processes specific to the urban environment, as the city represents more than a simple demographic agglomeration.