Conference Agenda

Polycentricity is increasingly gaining global significance as a both a normative concept for spatial planning and management and an analytical construct in urban geography. One of the main challenges in the development of polycentric urban regions is achieving functional coherence between the centers that encompass them. This study examines how regions’ naming captures a specific dimension of this integration, namely residents’ regional identity and attachment. Our analysis is based on a survey conducted among residents of the eight largest metropolitan regions in Poland. Our findings confirm that a region’s name, when positively perceived in functional-organizational, strategic-image, and cultural-historical contexts, significantly strengthens residents’ identification with the region and fosters emotional attachment. This, in turn, contributes to the functional coherence of the region.

Particularly in times of (social and economic) crisis, sport as a historical grown and cultural phenomenon promotes sustainable social cohesion (Bas et al., 2020). Since 2021, community orientated sport club culture in Germany has even been part of UNESCO's intangible cultural heritage due to its historical, social and cultural significance for society as a whole, as a place for learning and practising rules, customs and traditions together (Deutsche UNESCO-Kommission, 2023). Organised major sporting events (MISE), such as the Olympic Games but also football World Cups also have an identity-forming effect, as (mythical) venues are built (Hüser et al., 2022) where sporting competitions are held together according to established rituals and rules, which in turn create shared formative memories and stabilise traditions (Horne et al., 2006). As central venues, stadiums, their architecture, their central geographical situation in the urban landscape as well as their post-sporting event legacy (Llorca, 2024), but above all their emblematic names, are of outstanding importance for cultural heritage (Kiuri et al., 2015).

Remarkably, stadiums that have hosted Olympic Games often retain their name (“Olympic stadium”), while even unique names of venerable football stadiums are often changed with the aim of generating additional revenue. A well-known recent example is the legendary football stadium in Barcelona, which was renamed “Spotify Camp Nou” in 2022. Besides the additional revenue, those responsible justified this agreement with the aim of bringing together the two sectors of the entertainment industry, music and sport (Brown, 2012). However, such business-orientated strategies are controversial (Koch et al., 2022). For example, the great rival in Spain, Real Madrid, like many other top European clubs, opposes the sale of the naming rights to its “Estadio Santiago Bernabéu” (Kroll, 2024). Moreover, numerous naming projects have to be abandoned because fan protests make successful naming impossible (Gerhardt et al., 2021) or fans decide in favour of other names in democratic votes, for example Roazhon Park in Rennes (Ceillier, 2015).

As part of the research project DISCLOSE (2022-2025) and the sub(sequent research project AGéoLinES, our contribution joining the session Place names between cultural heritage and cultural change, seeks to find out which factors influence the naming of stadiums and how fans from German-speaking countries – Austria (underdog league) and Germany (top league) – as well as French-speaking country – Belgium (underdog league) and France (top league) – evaluate the naming of ‘their’ stadiums.

The theoretical framework is a three-dimensional socio-discursive model (Bach et al., 2022) which is tested by means of a web-scraped data set (~3,500 cases). In addition, an online survey is conducted among football fans from these four countries to contextualise these results.

Preliminary results confirm that the language family and category, the league affiliation, and the year of construction are salient variables. Fan acceptance is determined by the sponsor’s image. Overall, the phenomenon of stadium naming oscillates between (wishful) identity-stabilising cultural heritage and (necessary) commercialisation.

References

Bach, Matthieu, Javier Fernández-Cruz, Laurent Gautier, Florian Koch & Matthieu Llorca. 2022. Néologismes en discours spécialisé. Analyse comparée des noms de stades de football dans quatre pays européens. Estudios Románicos 31. 309–327.

Bas, Daniela, Melissa Martin, Carol Pollack & Robert Venne. 2020. The Impact of COVID-19 on Sport, Physical Activity and Well-being and its Effects on Social Development. New York: UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs. Policy Briefs, 73.

Brown, Luke. 2022. Barcelona agree Spotify deal for Camp Nou naming rights and shirt sponsorship. New York: New York Times.

Ceillier, Glenn. 2015. Appelez-le Roazhon Park : Le Stade Rennais a choisi le nouveau nom de son stade. Paris: Eurosport.

Deutsche UNESCO-Kommission. 2023. Bundesweites Verzeichnis Immaterielles Kulturerbe : Jubiläum 20 Jahre Konvention 10 Jahre Verzeichnis. Bonn: Deutsche UNESCO-Kommission e.V.

Gerhardt, Cornelia, Ben Clarke & Justin Lecarpentier. 2021. Naming rights sponsorship in Europe. AILA Review 34(2). 212–239.

Horne, John & Wolfram Manzenreiter. 2006. An Introduction to the Sociology of Sports Mega-Events. The Sociological Review 54(2). 1–24.

Hüser, Dietmar, Paul Dietschy & Philipp Didion. 2022. Einleitung: Aimez-vous toujours les stades?' Ansätze, Themen und Perspektiven einer deutsch-französischen und europäischen Stadionforschung im ‚langen‘ 20. Jahrhundert. In Dietmar Hüser, Philipp Didion & Paul Dietschy (eds.) Sport-Arenen – Sport-Kulturen – Sport-Welten: Deutsch-französisch-europäische Perspektiven im „langen“ 20. Jahrhundert = Arènes du sport – Cultures du sport – Mondes du sport : perspectives franco-allemandes et européennes dans le ‘long’ XXe siècle Stuttgart: Franz Steiner Verlag. 9–38.

Kiuri, Miranda & Jacques Teller. 2015. Olympic Stadiums and Cultural Heritage: On the Nature and Status of Heritage Values in Large Sport Facilities. The International Journal of the History of Sport 32(5). 684–707.

Koch, Florian & Laurent Gautier. 2022. Allianz-Arena, Orange Vélodrome & Co: Zum Framing kommerzieller Namen von Fußballstadien im deutsch-französischen Vergleich. Beiträge zur Namenforschung 58(3). 363–385.

Kroll. 2024. Why European Football Clubs Should Look to Stadium Naming Rights to Diversify Income: An Analysis of Potential Stadium Naming Rights Valuations. New York: European Stadium Naming Rights Report.

Llorca, Matthieu, Laurent Gautier & Florian Koch. 2024. Les multiples dimensions du stade olympique. Esprit Critique : Revue Internationale de Sociologie et de Sciences sociales 34(1). 195–212.

Ramshaw, Gregory & Sean Gammon. 2015. Heritage and Sport. In Emma Waterton and Steve Watson (eds.) The Palgrave Handbook of Contemporary Heritage Research, London: Palgrave Macmillan UK. 248–60.

The commercialization of urban space refers to the process by which public or private spaces are utilized for commercial purposes, most commonly for promoting companies and brands. This phenomenon is evident in urban landscapes when, for example, large advertising signs displaying company names and logos are placed on buildings as part of branding strategies. Frequently, these buildings become informally referred to by the names featured on the prominent advertising signs. As a result, the company’s name subtly embeds itself into the collective consciousness of residents, and the building transforms into a recognizable town landmark, acquiring brand-like characteristics.

Examples of this identity transfer—from the company name to the building name—can be found in many towns. In Zagreb, such transfers often refer to buildings named after major companies established in the second half of the 19th century and during the socialist period (e.g., Vjesnik, Ferimport, INA, Nama, Roma). With the transition to the capitalist system and the rise of private ownership, the urban landscape in Zagreb has witnessed the emergence of residential and office buildings, as well as mixed-use block buildings (e.g., Park kneževa [Princes’ Park]) constructed by domestic and foreign private investors to sell or rent premises for residential, entertainment, or business purposes.

To enhance the attractiveness of these buildings to potential residents and users, owners or investors assign them carefully selected, attractive names that evoke prestige, luxury, and cosmopolitanism. Such names are often in English and prominently displayed on advertising signs (e.g., Avenue Mall, Green Gold, Eurotower, Sky Office Towers). They are typically placed in visible locations on the buildings, such as their rooftops. As these names are used from the beginning of construction, they gradually become ingrained in the public space and, in the absence of alternative names, are adopted by residents as informal names.

This presentation examines selected examples of building names in Zagreb motivated by commercial goals from a cultural-geographical perspective. It highlights the increasing presence, aesthetics, meanings, history, and symbolism of such names and the buildings that carry these names within the urban fabric.

Names of streets, squares and other urban public spaces (urbanonyms) are among the most common symbols ascribed to public spaces in urban areas. They express both local history of a city or town, national history and other elements that are a reflection of both long-time historical processes, as well as currently dominant historical, political, cultural and ideological narratives. Thus, they usually serve as tools for the expression of identity and collective memory, which is a process that becomes the most apparent after significant shifts in political systems.

In the early 1990s, the Republic of Croatia proclaimed its independence from the former Socialist Federative Republic of Yugoslavia. In the process of seeking international recognition while defending against a military aggression, the new political shift from single-party socialism towards parliamentary democracy sought to replace the narratives expressed in urban landscapes from those mirroring strong socialist ideological, political and historical narratives into the ones emphasizing the Croatian national identity and history. The common practice throughout the 1990s was, thus, to intentionally replace most of the dominant symbols of socialism and its one-sided view of history and the emphasis on the common Yugoslav identity with those articulating and reaffirming the particular Croatian national identity, its history and the events that were unfolding at the time, which have turned out to be of the utmost historical importance for the Croatian nation and the modern Croatian state.

The aim of this paper is to analyze the actual urbanonyms (2025) in the Croatian city of Zadar and compare them to those from 1986, in order to find out and explain the extent of the changes that occurred in urbanonyms in terms of changes of political and historical narratives in the two politically contrasted periods. By analyzing and listing the existing urbanonyms from contemporary online sources such as Open Street Map and geographically comparing them to the data found in a Zadar Street Map published in 1986, a database of street names and their changes is created. A content analysis of urbanonyms from both observed years is performed in order to determine and quantify all the changes and reach conclusions about the extent and nature of the shifted identities and narratives expressed in the actual names of Zadar’s streets and public places.