The Political Life of Urban Streetscapes

Naming, Politics, and Place

Dados Bibliográficos

ID23799751
AutoresMonika Palmberger (0000-0002-0280-3769, KU Leuven, autor correspondente)
EditoresReuben Rose-Redwood (0000-0001-6384-5877), Derek Alderman, Maoz Azaryahu (0000-0003-1834-4218)
Ano2017
Páginas168-184
Data de publicação2017-07-06
Open AccessNão
TipoBOOK
PeriódicoPolitical Life of Urban Streetscapes (SOURCE_BOOK)
EditoraRoutledge (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.4324/9781315554464
OpenAlexW3108750268
ISBN9781315554464
IdiomaEN
Citações recebidas87

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.

Geography · Political science · Public space · Space (punctuation) · Balkans: History, Politics, Society · Computer Science · Cultural Heritage Management and Preservation