Toponymic commodification and the neoliberal city

Abstract

After being practiced for nearly three decades in the city of São Paulo for privately-owned venues such as cinemas, theaters and, more recently, sports stadiums, the sale of naming rights is being applied to state-owned spaces: in April 2020, the Companhia do Metropolitano de São Paulo (Cia. do Metrô) announced a plan to grant to private exploitation the right to name its stations. This article analyzes this plan, its premises and expectations. It concludes that, while a series of conflicts related to the memory of the city and its spatial landmarks have been identified by recent studies on toponymic commodification and suggested by the city’s antecedents on this matter, such conflicts do not seem to be considered in the plan’s agenda.

Keywords

• naming rights
• toponymy
• city marketing
• memory
• identities