DOI: https://doi.org/10.34680/urbis-2025-5(2)-263-282

Analyzing the concept “cultural code (of a сity)” in foreign studies

Anna Vandysheva
Kuban State Technological University, Krasnodar, Russia
[email protected]
ORCID: 0000-0002-5714-617X

ABSTRACT

The relevance of the research is due to the growing interest in the problems of urban identity, sustainable development, and branding of urban space, where understanding the deep mechanisms of coding, on the one hand, and the manifestation of culture in the semiotic aspect, on the other, is becoming a key factor in effective management. The city's cultural code is an ambiguous phenomenon, characterized by multidimensional approaches and content that is sometimes contradictory. The purpose of this work is a systematic review of the research of foreign scientists published in foreign scientific sources, a critical analysis, and a structuring of the scientific views of foreign authors in the field of studying the cultural code in general and the cultural code of the city, in particular, with an emphasis on its visual and anthropological dimensions. A representative base has been established for further comparative analysis of the data obtained alongside the results of Russian scientists' scientific achievements, followed by conceptualization, parameterization, and construction of a structured, integrated model of the “cultural code of the city”. The results of studying the works of foreign scientists allow us to identify three main trends in scientific research in the field under study: the focus on the theorization of the notion/concept of the cultural code in its pure form, without correlating it with urbanism, in isolation from the urban context; field, empirical studies of cultural codes of specific cities, which have apparent practical significance, are often focused on solving autonomous practical and managerial tasks of urban development, and are not of a complex nature; works whose authors use an interdisciplinary approach to studying the cultural code of a city, including using modern technologies, while the research results have different theoretical potential. Many studies are devoted to the problem field, which essentially corresponds to the concept of the cultural code of the city, however, foreign authors use slightly different terminology (“cultural landscape”, “urban imaginary”, “branding of the city”, “cultural map of the city”, “cognitive/mental map of the city”, etc.). The results of the study state that the city's cultural code is an open, living, multi-layered system, a kind of genomic semantic convolution. Its visual segment consists of key symbols, objects, events, texts, narratives, spaces, landscapes, mental (cognitive) maps, cultural and spatial tags, and many others that manifest and transmit meaningful and conceptual information. The cultural code, among other things, shapes a set of urban behaviors, values, attitudes, beliefs, and meanings.

KEYWORDS: cultural code of the city, urban culture, visual dominance, cultural landscape, cultural and historic urban, landscape, cultural mapping, cultural DNA.

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Information about the author

Anna V. Vandysheva

Cand. Sci. (Philology),

Associate Professor

of the Foreign Languages Department

Head of the Forensic Linguistics Centre

Kuban State Technological University

2 “A” Bld., 2, Moskovskaya St., Krasnodar,

350072, Russian Federation

ORCID: 0000-0002-5714-617X

e-mail: [email protected]

For citation:
Vandysheva, А. V. (2025). Analyzing the concept “cultural code (of a сity)” in foreign studies. Urbis et Orbis. Microhistory and Semiotics of the City, 5(2), 263–282. https://doi.org/10.34680/urbis-2025-5(2)-263-282