Néotoponymie, marqueur et référent dans la recomposition de territoires urbains en difficulté

In French urban redevelopment the common process is territorial adjustment. It is the result of public policy (urban, housing and social integration programs) and of cultural or socio-economic changes. The question is how these kinds of changes can be seen ? Current happenings in districts of some French towns, known as “difficult areas”, explain the lack of public intervention. They make us think that socio-spatial segregations are increasing. What about the precursors of these situations? Graphing, writing, tracing, and marking are useful tools of territorial representation. In this paper, we will be interested as a geographer and sociolinguist, in tracks and visible marks in urban space. In observing two districts (one a suburb close to a new centre in Montpellier, the second, a enclosed city close to downtown Avignon), we want to find a answer to two questions : how to describe the markers which characterize the places, practices and people of the district ? Why is it interesting to consider the shop signs, graffiti, public notices and posters, … as neotoponymics markers of change?