TY - JOUR
T1 - Towards Creating a Global Urban Toponymy—A Comment
AU - Bigon, Liora
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2020 by the author.
PY - 2020/12
Y1 - 2020/12
N2 - This commentary points to the problems inherent in critical place names studies in terms of classic research topics, methodologies and geographies. It expounds the limits of the official “index”, that is, the variety of traditional urban inscriptions on which critical toponymy scholars rely in interpreting modern urban spatialities—e.g., lists of street names, official street signage, gazetteers, archival materials, etc. The argument is that in Southern urban contexts, where informality in planning can reach up to about 80 percent of the city, researching official naming and signage renders a distorted image of the city and its namescape production. A comment is thus made on the need to embrace more innovative and almost ethnographic research methodologies for understanding place referencing, place attachment and everyday navigational channels in Southern cities. These will generate a more substantial contribution towards the creation of global urban toponymy and a further de-colonization of Eurocentric presumptions regarding governmentality, urban management, and the accompanying role of street naming systems.
AB - This commentary points to the problems inherent in critical place names studies in terms of classic research topics, methodologies and geographies. It expounds the limits of the official “index”, that is, the variety of traditional urban inscriptions on which critical toponymy scholars rely in interpreting modern urban spatialities—e.g., lists of street names, official street signage, gazetteers, archival materials, etc. The argument is that in Southern urban contexts, where informality in planning can reach up to about 80 percent of the city, researching official naming and signage renders a distorted image of the city and its namescape production. A comment is thus made on the need to embrace more innovative and almost ethnographic research methodologies for understanding place referencing, place attachment and everyday navigational channels in Southern cities. These will generate a more substantial contribution towards the creation of global urban toponymy and a further de-colonization of Eurocentric presumptions regarding governmentality, urban management, and the accompanying role of street naming systems.
KW - Southern cities
KW - nondescript addresses
KW - official street naming systems
KW - toponymic “index”
KW - unofficial toponymy
KW - urban Africa
KW - urban informality
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85118372351&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.3390/urbansci4040075
DO - 10.3390/urbansci4040075
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AN - SCOPUS:85118372351
SN - 2413-8851
VL - 4
JO - Urban Science
JF - Urban Science
IS - 4
M1 - 75
ER -