Place Naming asDispositif: Toward a Theoretical Framework

Abstract

Recent critical toponymies have convincingly demonstrated that studying place names also reveals much about geopolitics and power relations. In this paper, we propose a theoretical framework for interpreting these toponymies, in order to better decipher, theorise, and compare the many very rich case studies in the field. Our first argument is that the focus of enquiry should be place naming processes rather than place names themselves. We then show that place naming is a dispositif in the Foucauldian sense. This allows us to build a framework that distinguishes between (a) four types of geopolitical contexts, from which place naming processes tend to stem; (b) four types of technologies that are commonly used; and (c) three types of actors. Lastly, we identify the preferential combinations and nexuses between these building blocks of place naming contexts, technologies, and actors.Mohamed Bouazizi was the Tunisian fruit seller whose self-immolation on 17 December 2010 triggered uprisings in the Arab world. Very soon afterwards, he was commemorated in his hometown of Sidi Bouzid, in the capital Tunis, and in Paris, the capital of the former colonial power, by naming streets after him. While referring to the same person, and to the same event he inspired, the naming processes and the places named after him differed strongly in Sidi Bouzid, Tunis, and Paris. In his hometown, the main thoroughfare now bears the name of its most famous son. In Tunis, Bouazizi's name replaced the Boulevard du 7 novembre, which had celebrated Ben Ali's deposition of Bourguiba, as early as 17 February 2011. In Paris, a small section of the Avenue de la Sibelle (14 th arrondissement)where the sidewalk widensprovided a niche for the brand-new Place Mohamed Bouazizi, 1 which the Tunisia-born Parisian mayor, Bertrand Delanoë, inaugurated on 30 June 2011. The different natures of these places draw attention to the different contexts and objectives for naming a place after Bouazizi: The revolutionary context in Tunisia points to naming the town's main landmark after a local,

Assembling “Japantown”? A critical toponymy of urban dispossession in Vancouver, Canada

“…While studies of toponymy have a long history within linguistics, geography, philosophy, law, and anthropology dating as far back as the 1830s, critical toponymy has become a salient focus for geographers who wish to seriously examine the contested processes and implications of place naming (Giraut & Houssay-Holzschuch, 2016; Rose-Redwood, Alderman, & Azaryahu, 2010;Vuolteenaho & Berg, 2009). In this diverse body of work, naming is seen as an enactment of political power that is implicated in the production and management of place.…”

“…Swart (2008) has shown how Germany and South Africa have modified the toponymic landscape after regime changes to "reflect new power structures and officially sanction a particular version of history" (p. 120). A second strand draws on governmentality studies to examine how naming processes (among other interventions such as as territorial inscription, street naming, and house numbering) work as technologies of classification, management, and control, allowing States to consolidate and exercise power through the identification of populations and the implementation of infrastructure, taxation systems, and policing strategies (Rose-Redwood, 2006Rose-Redwood et al, 2010; see also Giraut & Houssay-Holzschuch, 2016) A third strand uses political economy to examine neoliberal urban governance trends which enrol place naming into ideologies of competition, urban entrepreneurialism, and "creative class" economics, processes which can lead to gentrification (see Berg, 2011;Light & Young, 2015;Medway & Warnaby, 2014;Vuolteenaho & Ainiala, 2009). For example, the city of Manchester (among others) has used street naming to associate ordinary toponyms like "Northern Quarter" with cultural signifiers like "hipster-ism, creativity, fashion and music" in order to attract capital (Light & Young, 2015, p. 10).…”

“…While geographers have recognized the power of naming in the production of place, we wish to expand upon recent interventions using a new approach that more closely examines the fluid, relational, and genealogical aspects of toponymy (see Giraut & Houssay-Holzschuch, 2016;Tucker & Rose-Redwood, 2015). This approach looks at the multiple ways in which naming proceeds while explicitly demonstrating how naming operates simultaneously with discursive and material processes.…”

"La Commune n'est pas morte"

“…Consideramos dentro de esta categoría a los odónimos (nombres propios que designan espacios públicos), pues también son lugares de "inscripción, señalamiento o marcación territorial" de la memoria (Schindel, 2009, p. 66) y existe toda una línea de estudios críticos en torno a ellos (Badariotti, 2002;Alderman et al, 2004;Azaryahu, 1996Azaryahu, , 2011Comard-Rentz, 2006;Rose-Redwood et al, 2008Hagen, 2011). Para algunos autores (Giraut & Houssay-Holzschuch, 2016), el entramado odonímico de los núcleos de población es un auténtico dispositif (Foucault, 1991, p.128-29) que conforma el imaginario colectivo (Nora, 1989;Dwyer, 2000Dwyer, , 2004Johnson, 2004;Foote & Azaryahu, 2007;Kocsis, 2019), de ahí que también hayamos puesto en ellos el foco arqueológico (Van Dyke & Alcock, 2003, p. 3). La distinción que hacemos en este trabajo entre memoriales y odónimos como categorías separadas, por lo tanto, es puramente pragmática (ya que, en puridad, los segundos serían un subconjunto de los primeros), con el objetivo de facilitar al lector una comprensión intuitiva de los elementos considerados.…”

Pushed off the map: Toponymy and the politics of place in New York City

“…But the emerging literature on critical toponymy examines place naming as a form of spatial politics (Giraut and Houssay-Holzschuch, 2016;Alderman and Inwood, 2013;Rose-Redwood and Alderman, 2011). It is focused on "understanding place naming as a contested spatial practice rather than viewing place names as transparent signifiers that designate places as 'objects' or 'artifacts' within a predefined geographical space" (Rose-Redwood, Alderman and Azaryahu 2010: 455).…”