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Spatial Symbolism and Politics

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Book cover Inventing Berlin

Part of the book series: The Urban Book Series ((UBS))

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Abstract

This chapter goes into depth about spatial symbolism and the new cultural geographical concept of the cultural landscape. Following a detailed examination of the use of semiotics in the interpretation of the cultural landscape, it explicates the landscape features which will be the focus of this study—street names, monuments, urban planning, and architectural styles—and introduces the major terms and concepts which will be used throughout this book. The chapter examines the concept of space and spatial symbols as politicized goods, especially their role in nation-building and national narratives. It closes with an examination of the politicization of space in Eastern Europe during the Cold War and the reactionary stance to these spaces after 1989/1990, setting the stage for a wider discussion of post-socialist cultural landscapes.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    See also the concept of relational space, for example (Murdoch 2006) or (Allen et al. 1998).

  2. 2.

    For an in-depth description, please see Chandler (2007).

  3. 3.

    For a comprehensive examination of the history of street naming research and the changing role of street names in cultural geographical research, please see Rose-Redwood et al. (2018a), in particular Rose-Redwood et al. (2018b).

  4. 4.

    These tendencies were shared both in nation-building processes in existing post-socialist nation -states like Poland, where these acts were chiefly concerned with reinterpretation, and in newly created nation-states like Bosnia and Serbia, where these acts primarily focused on differentiation. This book and the following discussion focus on the former. For more information on the latter, please see for example Pavlaković (2012a, b, 2013).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Berlin, Germany

    Dr. Mary Dellenbaugh-Losse

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  1. Dr. Mary Dellenbaugh-Losse
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Correspondence to Mary Dellenbaugh-Losse .

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Dellenbaugh-Losse, M. (2020). Spatial Symbolism and Politics. In: Inventing Berlin. The Urban Book Series. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-29718-3_2

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