Postdoc Project: Cities in a City. Mental Mapping and Naming Practices in an Urban Environmen

Sara Racca joined the URPP Language and Space in January 2023. 

Postdoc Project: Cities in a City. Mental Mapping and Naming Practices in an Urban Environment

According to United Nations data (World Urbanization Prospects 2018), more than half of the world’s population resides in urban agglomerations, and the number will continue to grow in the coming decades. For city dwellers to benefit the most, urban growth should follow three directions of sustainable development: economic, environmental and social.
Regarding the latter, linguistics (and toponomastics, in particular) can help shed light on some useful elements for policymakers. Since people tend to name relevant places in order to communicate with their social circles, the study of place naming practices can reveal how citizens relate to the places where they live and fill them with meaning.
The project concerns the collection and study of toponyms currently in use among the inhabitants of Torino, one of Italy’s largest cities by population. Due to its industrial past, Torino experienced strong immigration from other Italian regions in the 1950s-1970s and still attracts population from other countries. The conversion of spaces and the diversity of the population make Torino an excellent case study for investigating the perception, conceptualization and naming practices of the urban landscape.
Specifically, the project aims to collect the names of neighbourhoods through surveys and field research. The idea of “neighbourhood”, in fact, is not strictly regulated or defined, and intertwines with concepts such as identity and community. Therefore, discovering which areas are actually named, whether traditional or new names are used and whether different inhabitants agree with the names and boundaries of neighbourhoods, allow us to unveil how dwellers imagine their city.

Supervisor: Ross Purves