Looking for a destiny, my fellows. Urban imaginary and citizen’s symbolic construction in Cochabamba

Abstract

This paper analyzes the urban imaginaries of Cochabamba’s city to understand the symbolic citizen’s construction processes. This contribution to the communicational knowledge unifies two dimensions of the city: tangible and intangible, as the process of construction of messages and new significations. To achieve that, we took some concepts like: objects of exhibition, observation frames and consequences of the look. The methodology for addressing the issue is mixt. We have worked with young people from 18 to 24 years old and third age persons (60 years old onwards). The main conclusion is that the first ones choose the representative icons from the city according to their experiences; meanwhile the second ones use their memories to achieve the same process.