Exploratory study on toponymic stigma through discussing the negative brand value of place names: A case of Wuhan in China

Keywords: place names, toponym, negative brand value of place names, toponymic stigma, COVID-19, Wuhan
Session Type: Virtual Poster Abstract
Day: Sunday
Session Start / End Time: 2/27/2022 02:00 PM (Eastern Time (US & Canada)) - 2/27/2022 03:20 PM (Eastern Time (US & Canada))
Room: Virtual 62

Abstract

This study proposes a concept “negative brand value of place names”; when events such as disease, disaster, and catastrophe occur in a specific place, the total brand value of place names might decrease. The negative brand value of place names has socially entrenched recognition of place names and exposed them to the risk of reproducing negative images, thus this study intends to apply the concept of stigma, meaning socially dishonorable property. "Toponymic stigma" can be defined that a social risk as the negative brand value of place names is solidified into the place names through a series of processes.
The concept of toponymic stigma can be materialized by constructing evaluation method to measure and assess it. In this study, the assessment includes four items: awareness, images, influence of recognition, loyalty. A case study has been conducted on Wuhan in China, which has long been considered a source region of COVID-19.
A toponym Wuhan showed relatively high awareness among other Chinese cities, and negative answers prevailed in terms of Wuhan's image, influence of cognition, and loyalty. In addition, these four items showed significant differences in answers depending on how much the survey participants thought they were affected by COVID-19 and whether they had visited China. Further studies can be the proposed to continuously verify the validity of the assessment items by applying them to various cases; discuss a concrete methodology to measure changes in recognition of place names; relationship between place and toponym.