Perceived intra-urban centrality in Kyiv: The student perspective

This article explores intra-urban perceived centrality in Kyiv, Ukraine’s capital, investigating its relationships with the selected non-perceptual measures of centrality. Using a three-stage survey of 141 students, the study examines how respondents delineate the city center’s boundaries, which locations they perceive as central, and how they use and experience the space of the city center. The findings reveal both overlaps and discrepancies between contour-derived and location-based intra-urban centrality. The Dnieper River, railways, and major highways serve as strong spatial referents of the center’s boundary, while the main city street and square together with certain traditional historic neighborhoods anchor the perceived city center. At the same time, functional load, landmark value, and personal experiential factors significantly shape perceptions, creating local spikes and dips of centrality. Respondents emphasize not so much individual monuments as the broader historic environment and atmosphere of the city center, with walking and flânerie as dominant practices. The results highlight tensions between heritage preservation and aggressive commercialization, as well as the underutilized potential of the Dnieper waterfront in the Ukrainian capital. The main contribution of the study lies in underscoring perceived intra-urban centrality as a multidimensional and fluid social construct, shaped by history, functions, symbolism, and everyday social practices, which can be operationalized by urban planners.