Street-Naming Cultures in Africa and Israel
Power Strategies and Place-Making Practices
Liora Bigon author Michel Ben Arrous author
Format:Paperback
Publisher:Taylor & Francis Ltd
Published:9th Jan '23
Currently unavailable, and unfortunately no date known when it will be back
This paperback is available in another edition too:
- Hardback£135.00(9781032003474)
This insightful book explores the dynamics of street naming in urban settings, particularly focusing on Street-Naming Cultures in Africa and Israel and its broader implications.
This book delves into the intricate processes of street naming that have influenced the semantic, textual, and visual landscapes of urban environments in sub-Saharan Africa, while also offering comparative insights from cities beyond the continent. It presents a thorough examination of the street-naming politics, policies, and practices that continually reshape these urban spaces, with a particular focus on Africa and Israel. The chapters highlight significant themes such as the role of informal processes, the reception of names, and the evolution of unofficial toponymies, alongside discussions on decolonization, place attachment, and the physicality of street signage.
Street-Naming Cultures in Africa and Israel goes beyond traditional narratives by integrating comparative perspectives on the toponymic experiences of African and Israeli cities. This approach challenges the predominantly Eurocentric focus of existing research, which often emphasizes nationalistic ideologies and regime changes through top-down mapping practices. By incorporating a rich variety of visual evidence from diverse urban settings, the book illustrates the deep connections between structured politics, everyday practices, historical contexts, and marginalized cultures.
As an essential resource for urban studies, toponymic research, and African studies, Street-Naming Cultures in Africa and Israel serves as a valuable reference for both scholars and students. The work encourages a broader understanding of how place names shape identities and reflect societal changes in these regions.
"Street-Naming Cultures in Africa and Israel is an insightful, analytically rigorous and theoretically fluent comparative examination of the toponymic processes that link Africa and Israel – and France ‒ within broader semantic, textual and visual urban practices. The range, breadth and depth of the chapters and the elegance of the language provide an exceptional concreteness to cross-systemic analysis of street naming."
Professor Wale Adebanwi, Rhodes Professor of Race Relations, Oxford University,UK
"This valuable and unique contribution to critical place-name studies upends longstanding Eurocentrism in the field of toponymy in its empirical sites for comparison and its approach. It brings the discourses around street-naming alive, analytically, visually and culturally. The analysis is cogent and the juxtapositions both novel and striking."
Professor Garth Myers,Trinity College Hartford, CT, USA
"Liora Bigon and Michel Ben Arrous offer here a lively, knowledgeable and pleasant back-door entry into the contemporary city. By taking us through the logics of place-naming, both of official decision-makers and of people’s practices, they make us hear many of the voices that shape the lived city experience. Deep down, the authors show that the polynomy of places in Africa as well as in Israel is at the same time a journey, an invitation, and an encyclopaedia in the making."
Profssor Doutor César Cumbe,Universidade Pedagógica, Maputo, Mozambique
"This excellent book provides a much-needed focus on non-western politics of urban naming through detailed and fascinating case studies of cities in Israel and Africa. It highlights the entanglements of people and things, as well as the contentious and convoluted histories, which characterise the process of naming. It is a book that should provide inspiration to all scholars interested in urban politics and history."
Professor Rhys Jones,Aberystwyth University, UK
ISBN: 9781032003511
Dimensions: unknown
Weight: 460g
236 pages