Cuenca, Odonymy and Memory: 1557-2018

Cities are a complex network of relationships, infrastructure, policies and people. In this network, the names of places and streets play an important role in the way we understand the city, they have a historical and political burden, they reveal social practices of affirmation and strengthening of identities. Therefore, in addition, the "simple" assignment of names, are historical and social referents, and reflection of negotiations between their power structures. In this context, this project seeks through critical historical analysis and information design, looking at the city of Cuenca, its urban parishes, through the names of its streets, so that it allows us to understand the asynchronies in their structures of power and generate citizen awareness, as well as facilitate the various interpretations of the city they inhabit. This research, establishes since its inception, as a transverse aspect in the study methodology, the gender perspective. This political practice of designation of names and their relationship with the established social order, unequal, demonstrates that the names of women, their groups and other study categories such as ethnic groups and classes, are visibly, in number, less than male names. Finally, it seeks to communicate the results of the project through a data display platform that allows users to navigate and interact through the city built from multiple visions and that is not in view in everyday life. In addition, recommendations on municipal political practices that facilitate citizen and collective participation will be established.

XVIII UNIVERSITY COMPETITION FOR RESEARCH PROJECTS