Nationalizing the Streetscape: The Case of Street Renaming in Mostar, Bosnia and Herzegovina 

In present-day Bosnia and Herzegovina, names, particularly those of public places, are ascribed great importance and are often the cause of disputes between the three constituent peoples—Bosniaks, Croats, and Serbs—some of which even end before the courts. Such renamings were particularly evident in the case of Mostar, a city divided into a Bosniak-dominated east side and a Croat-dominated west side since the 1992-1995 war. This chapter examines how the renaming of streets in Croat-dominated West Mostar presents a policy of exclusion, whereby the political strategy followed is to nationalize public space. The renaming process has a twofold aim; first, it eradicates the old name and thereby aims to “de-commemorate” the event/person/place that was previously remembered. In a second step, the act of renaming aims to establish a new commemorative space. In the case of West Mostar, the de-commemoration concerns the socialist past while the new commemorative space is dedicated to Croat national history. In this chapter, not only are the politics of renaming explored but also the question of how much this new commemorative space is acknowledged by ordinary citizens and if and to what extent it succeeds in replacing the old (socialist) commemorative space.status: publishe

Adebanwi, AN

Rose-Redwood, R

Alderman, D

Azaryahu, M

Light, Duncan

Young, C.

Bournemouth University Research Online

The politics of toponymic continuity: the limits of change and the ongoing lives of street names

There is a widespread recognition in the critical toponymies literature that radical or revolutionary political change is accompanied by the renaming of urban streets and buildings. In particular, through a process of ‘toponymic cleansing’ ideologically inappropriate names are removed from the urban arena and replaced by new names that accord with the agenda, aspirations and values of the new political order. This process is frequently assumed to be clean, decisive and definitive; a clean sweep which results in a comprehensive reconfiguring of the toponymic landscape. However, we argue that the process is far more messy and inconclusive than is often recognised. Streets with inappropriate names may be overlooked; the material signage with the old name may persist long after a street has been through the administrative process of renaming; and old (and ideologically inappropriate) names may remain in widespread daily use long after they have been formally changed. In other words, former toponymies are absent presences that haunt the city long after a period of revolutionary political change has been completed. In this chapter we examine such ‘residual’ toponymies and we illustrate our discussion with a range of examples from post-socialist and post-colonial contexts. We argue that attempts to change everyday ‘worlds of meaning’ through renaming streets are much less successful than is often argued, and we call for a recognition of the performative limits of changing urban place names

Young, C

Light, D

E-space: Manchester Metropolitan University's Research Repository

The politics of toponymic continuity: The limits of change and the ongoing lives of street names

Oxford University Research Archive (ORA)

Coloring "Rainbow" Streets: The Struggle for Toponymic Multiracialism in Urban Post-Apartheid South Africa

Crossref

The Political Life of Urban Streetscapes

Vuolteenaho, Jani

Puzey, Guy

Edinburgh Research Explorer

"Armed with an encyclopedia and an axe":The socialist and post-socialist street toponymy of East Berlin revisited through Gramsci

Palmberger, Monika

Lirias