The Spatial Semiotics and Political Semantics of the Urban Text Changes: The Case of Public Space (Re)namings in Nev？ehir

This article is a case study on new urban sociology and toponymic politics. Semitoics and political semantics is one of the important topics in contemporary urban politics, critical toponymy, cultural landscape and memory studies. Place renaming plays a crucial rol in the social production of urban space and names are an expression of power and naming practices reflect the existing and changing power assymmetries. This article discusses how to read politically the process of place (re)namings and changing city text in a small-sized Turkish city, Nev？ehir. During the last fifteen years, especially after the mid-2016, the city underwent a severe process of spatial renaming and urban text radically altered. During this period three trends are discernible: resurrection of Islam-Turk synthesis (conservative and far right figures), proliferation of commemorative spaces, and neoliberal-conservative commodification and Islamisation of built environment. Especially after the failed July 15 Coup Attempt, with a new historical narrative signifying political regime change, public spaces were renamed in order to create a new identity, historical memory and space. The material presented in this article, and based on the empirical richness of the case study approach and interpreting the transformation of urban text through the lens of semiotics, political semantics, discourse analysis, and ideological critique, is the result of an ethnographic study collected through ethnographic techniques and qualitative methods. Extensive fieldwork was conducted between 2017 and 2018, including participant observation, interviews, guided city walks, informal conversations, media and grey literature review