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Abstract
Numerous studies have highlighted the importance of street naming as a strategy for constructing ‘places of memory’. This paper draws upon Bourdieu's theory of symbolic capital to examine two key moments in the history of street renaming in New York City: the renaming of the avenues on Manhattan's Upper West Side in the latter nineteenth century and the street renamings in Harlem a century later. The aim of such a comparative case study approach is to demonstrate how the symbolic capital associated with street naming may be linked to an elite project of symbolic erasure and forced eviction, on the one hand, and the cultural recognition of a historically marginalized group, on the other. Both cases consider attempts to rename formerly numbered streets and avenues, and the benefit of considering them together is that they illustrate the multiple interests—as well as the exclusionary politics of race, class, and gender—involved in such shifts from ‘number’ to ‘name’. In doing so, this paper extends the current literature on street naming as a commemorative practice by linking it to a broader relational view of place-making, memory, and symbolic capital.
De nombreuses études ont souligné à quel point la désignation des rues est importante comme stratégie de construction des «lieux de mémoire». Au plan théorique, cet article s'inspire des travaux de Bourdieu sur le capital symbolique afin de se pencher sur deux moments pivots de l'histoire de la modification du nom des rues de la Ville de New York: la modification du nom des avenues du Upper West Side de Manhattan vers la fin du dix-neuvième siècle, et la modification du nom des rues à Harlem un siècle plus tard. Le but d'une telle approche d'étude de cas comparative est de mettre en évidence comment le capital symbolique associé à la désignation des rues peut être lié à un projet porté par une élite qui vise l'effacement symbolique et l'expulsion forcée, d'une part, et la reconnaissance culturelle d'un groupe qui a joué un rôle marginal dans l'histoire, d'autre part. Les deux cas s'intéressent aux efforts déployés en vue de rebaptiser des rues et avenues numérotées. L'avantage de les aborder simultanément est de pouvoir identifier les intérêts multiples—ainsi que les politiques discriminatoires fondées sur la race, la classe et le sexe—en jeu dans la modification d'un «numéro» pour un «nom». Par rapport à la documentation existante sur la désignation des rues en tant que pratique commémorative, cet article apporte une vue d'ensemble sur les relations entre la conception des lieux, le souvenir, et le capital symbolique.
Diversos estudios han destacado la importancia de dar nombres a las calles como estratégica para la construcción de ‘lugares de memoria’. Este papel hace uso de la teoría de Bourdieu de capital simbólica para examinar dos momentos claves en la historia de renombrar las calles de la ciudad de Nueva York: las avenidas del Upper West Side de Manhattan a finales del siglo diecinueve y las calles de Harlem un siglo más tarde. El objetivo de este enfoque es de demostrar cómo la capital simbólica asociada con el acto de dar nombres a las calles puede estar vinculado a un proyecto elitista de tachadura simbólica y desalojo forzado, de un lado, y al reconocimiento cultural de un grupo históricamente marginado, del otro lado. Los dos casos consideran los intentos de renombrar de modo formal las calles y avenidas, y la ventaja de considerar los dos casos juntos es que demuestran los múltiples intereses—además de las políticas de exclusión con relación a raza, clase social y género—que quedan implicados en el cambio de ‘número’ a ‘nombre’. Al hacerlo, el papel amplia la literatura actual sobre el acto de dar nombres a las calles como práctica conmemorativa por establecer una conexión entre ésta y una vista relacional más general de creación de lugares, memoria y capital simbólica.
Acknowledgements
This paper was presented in a session on ‘Collective Memory and the Politics of Urban Space’ that I organized at the 2007 Meeting of the Association of American Geographers in San Francisco. I would like to thank all those who participated as well as attended the session, particularly the discussant Owen Dwyer. In addition, I benefited from the editorial advice of my doctoral adviser, James McCarthy, on an earlier version of this paper. I was fortunate to have the opportunity to gain additional insight from Syma Solovitch, Rondu Gantt, and Jason McGann, all of whom were instrumental in drawing attention to the gender inequities in Manhattan's streetscape. Lastly, I would like to acknowledge the useful feedback of four anonymous peer reviewers and the editor, Rob Kitchin. I take full responsibility, of course, for any errors in this article.
Notes
1 Scobey (Citation2002: 34) provides a useful discussion of the social composition and agenda of the West Side Association, noting that the Association's Executive Committee was composed of ‘real-estate professionals like William Martin, old-guard landowners like Benjamin Beekman, entrepreneurial developers like James Ruggles, wholesale merchants like Marshall Roberts, Wall Street financiers like Russell Sage, [and] politician-speculators like (ex-mayors and electoral adversaries) Fernando Wood and Daniel Tiemann’. For more details on the West Side Association, see Stern, Mellins and Fishman (Citation1999).
2 Mary McLeod Bethune (1875–1955) was one of the most influential African American women of her generation. She founded the Daytona Normal and Industrial Institute for Girls (Daytona Beach, Florida) in 1904 and when the school joined together with the Cookman Institute to become the co-ed Bethune-Cookman College in 1923, she then served as its president for nearly two decades. In 1935, Bethune also founded the National Conference of Negro Women, served as vice president of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), and was also an adviser to several US presidents. For an informative account of Bethune's achievements, see Hanson (Citation2003).