Journal of the Korean Geographical Society ISSN:1225-6633(Print) 대한지리학회지

The political elements and power relations involved in adopting, using and changing geographical names have attracted interests for a long time. The attempts to address how these facets are manifested in each culture, language area and political unit, either similarly or differently, and to make relevant conceptualization and categorization have been widely extended as the research field titled ‘critical toponymy’ was formulated. This study summarizes the background and factors which functioned in the emergence of critical toponymy, and reviews research products hereafter in three core subjects; representation of ideologies and commemorative naming; commodification of geographical names intended to realize economic values and flows of capital; and critical perspectives on geographical names as cultural heritage. A conceptual framework commonly accommodating these topics of critical toponymic research is proposed as the title of ‘multi-dimensional critical toponymy.’ This framework is composed of five elements; engines of adopting and changing geographical names and values involved in that process; nature, scale and location of places and features as objects of naming; paths of representing identities through names; expression of views appearing in the process of proposing and adopting names, and aspects of changes, coordination and decision; and characteristics of media using and conveying names and the choice of media. Two further items are suggested for future research, including establishing the scope of geographical names and developing research methodologies.