Street names are mundane media through which the past is commemorated and introduced into the public sphere. Viewed from a semiotic perspective, street names constitute a spatial-text produced over time, capturing the political, social and cultural climates in which it is formed. In this article we propose an analysis of street names in four Israeli towns of different social, political and demographic backgrounds. The study is based on a two-stage analysis: an analysis of the local narratives and a hermeneutic reading of the street maps as spatial-texts. This is followed by a quantitative summary of street names according to categories. By studying practices of naming and renaming, and deciphering key elements in these spatial-texts, we conclude that street names reflect the changing character of the Israeli political, social and cultural orders. As such, they are indicative of shifts occurring in the social production of the Israeli collective memory.

No abstract

No abstract

No abstract

Research in the United States has shown that knowledge of the public's attitude towards the political integration of local communities is a useful policy-making resource. Yet referenda on forming metropolitan area governments have often been submitted without fully taking into account this politically significant factor.Confronted by this situation, American urban research has explored the factors involved in public resistance to political integration. This scholarly concern has borne propositions (Hawkins, 1968(Hawkins, , 1966Booth, 1963) which have not been seriously considered outside the American setting. Utilizing American-based findings, the present paper considers the attitudes of Israeli urban communities toward political integration.Studies of voters' behavior on integration proposals usually rely on aggregate voting results as the dependent variable, and on aggregate socioeconomic data as the independent variablethat is, voter choice has often been explained on the basis of large aggregates of people (Hawkins, 1968). Considerable attention has been given to the relationship of socioeconomic life style and ecological factors to political integration. The