Affective Urban Cultures: A Multidimensional Analysis in Paris and Berlin

Individuals cope with the cognitive and social complexity of urban environments by attributing symbolic meanings to places. We conceptualize these representations as affective meanings and measure them using Osgood’s Evaluation–Potency–Activity (EPA) framework to examine how they organize into affective urban cultures. Using survey data from residents of the Grand Paris area (N=746) and Berlin (N= 758), we extend Affect Control Theory by applying EPA measurement to geographical units displayed on a web map. We assess whether affective meanings are consensually shared (RQ1), how they reflect the symbolic and functional stratification of the city (RQ2), what structural features predict them (RQ3), and how they vary with individual characteristics (RQ4). Our findings reveal shared yet contested affective cultures, structured around stigmatized, wealthy, and central areas. These patterns are determined by sociodemographic composition and land-use features and interact with participants' characteristics reflecting contested interpretations associated with polarization and gentrification processes.