Changer de nom pour changer d’image. Le cas des modifications de dénomination de département

摘要

Regarded as a leading identity marker and vehicle of communication, the name of a local authority is turning out to be a controversial challenge whose significance has proven even more prominent when it comes to modifying it. The analysis of political discourses related to renaming mainly three counties (Charente-Inférieure, Basses-Alpes and Côtes-du-Nord) between 1912 and 1990, provides a window to understand how the elected representatives take up such a request, originally claimed by the economic agents, how they access support to change both inside and outside the county. Moreover, at a time when public relations policies of local authorities are deployed and involved in an increasing professionalization, whatever the period studied, this paper reveals striking similarities in so far as the arguments raised are concerned (namely the geographically inaccurate and the pejorative value), the perspectives (mainly economical) as well as community mobilization strategies.