City: Melting Locus and Cross-Cultural Difference Versus Rural (The Case of Tirana after the 90s)

Abstract

After the 1990s, with the recognition of a number of rights denied during the communist regime, such as free movement, there was a large movement of internal migration from rural areas to large urban areas, especially towards the city of Tirana. A number of factors, mainly economic and social factors, favored this massive population movement from rural areas to urban areas. Almost complete disintegration of the economic base in rural areas, as well as infrastructure shortages, have pushed large numbers of population into urban areas, especially towards the periphery, across migration flows. On the other hand, enormous rural migration not only redefined the physical boundaries of the city but also produced new social and economic forms. As a result of interaction and confrontation of the social and cultural mentalities between rural and urban population (the case of Tirana) emerged several phenomena that created a clear demarcation area under the cultural and social aspects, as well as semi-rural or semi-urban hybrid interaction. In this perspective, this essay attempts to use a multidisciplinary approach to explain the general factors of this massive internal migration but also some aspects of the newly-formed landscape of social and cultural mentalities after this migration. As a result of this cultural interaction, we attempt to understand the reality of various subcultures in the city of Tirana and social behaviors in order to clarify the effects of this process regarding the dilemma on the ruralization of the urban or urbanization of the rural population.

DOI: 10.5901/ajis.2017.v6n2s1p129