The Resource of Cultural Memory in Building Territorial Identity

Abstract

On the basis of data derived from a complex sociological study the authors analyze modern approaches to studying territorial identity, its structure, and the factors that have an impact on its formation. In this day and age of Russian society territorial identity is a key indicator for solidarity and consolidation of the country’s people. Territorial identity is a phenomenon constructed in the process of management using communication technology; one of such technologies is the symbolism technology. We regard cultural memory as a social resource within the symbolism technology which is capable of constructing the territorial identity of the studied region using historical, military, and modern territorial symbols. The present work is based on the hypothesis that the spatial and temporal continuum of the Volgograd region relies only on the region’s symbolic resource. In the minds of urban and rural residents, the Volgograd region is mostly associated with the symbols of the Stalingrad battle and the Great Patriotic War. This promotes consolidation of urban and rural residents, building a stable regional identity. However, this is also a factor holding back the region’s development in the present and future and affecting migration sentiments among the young people, especially urban residents who wish to leave the region under study with its “frozen time”. These ideas are confirmed by the findings of the grant study carried out by the authors. The objective of the present paper is to reveal different ways in which territorial identity is manifested, in reproduction and assimilation of cultural memory by the urban and rural territorial community.