Resumo

AZAMBUJA ELALI, Gleice. Socio-environmental image of urban areas: a study in Ribeira, Natal-RN-Brasil. Psicol. Am. Lat. [online]. 2007, n.10. ISSN 1870-350X.

The urban environment takes on an important meaning to its inhabitants’ life. It facilitates or difficultates their movimentation, and supports or inhibes their behavior. Considering this presupposition, the author defines the concept of socio-environmental image, which amounts the notions of mental image and social meaning of city areas. The paper uses this concept to enfatise that, to comprehend the actual occupation of one area, it is necessary to understand the connection (nexus) between: (i) environmental characteristcs (dimensions, tophography, climate, morphology); (ii) the variation of social populational practices in time (temporal cicles of local use, social control, midiatic divulgations, presence in artistic activities, public and private instituitions action); and (iii) user perception (their sensations, experiences, memories, afection, apropriaton and identity). In order to illustrate this conceptual propose, the paper presents a research in Ribeira, district of Natal-RN-Brasil.

Palavras-chave : Socio-environmental Image; Environmental Perception; City.