Re-forming the political body in the city: The interplay of male bodies and territory in urban public spaces in Tel Aviv

City ◽  
2013 ◽  
Vol 17 (6) ◽  
pp. 748-777 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yael Allweil ◽  
Rachel Kallus
2020 ◽  
pp. 177-192
Author(s):  
Iman Hegazy

Public spaces are defined as places that should be accessible to all inhabitants without restrictions. They are spaces not only for gathering, socializing and celebrating but also for initiating discussions, protesting and demonstrating. Thus, public spaces are intangible expressions of democracy—a topic that the paper tackles its viability within the context of Alexandria, case study Al-Qaed Ibrahim square. On the one hand, Al-Qaed Ibrahim square which is named after Al-Qaed Ibrahim mosque is a sacred element in the urban fabric; whereas on the other it represents a non-religious revolutionary symbol in the Alexandrian urban public sphere. This contradiction necessitates finding an approach to study the characteristic of this square/mosque within the Alexandrian context—that is to realize the impact of the socio-political events on the image of Al-Qaed Ibrahim square, and how it has transformed into a revolutionary urban symbol and yet into a no-public space. The research revolves around the hypothesis that the political events taking place in Egypt after January 25th, 2011, have directly affected the development of urban public spaces, especially in Alexandria. Therefore methodologically, the paper reviews the development of Al-Qaed Ibrahim square throughout the Egyptian socio-political changes, with a focus on the square’s urban and emotional contextual transformations. For this reason, the study adheres to two theories: the "city elements" by Kevin Lynch and "emotionalizing the urban" by Frank Eckardt. The aim is not only to study the mentioned public space but also to figure out the changes in people’s societal behaviour and emotion toward it. Through empowering public spaces, the paper calls the different Egyptian political and civic powers to recognize each other, regardless of their religious, ethnical or political affiliations. It is a step towards replacing the ongoing political conflicts, polarization, and suppression with societal reconciliation, coexistence, and democracy.


Author(s):  
Sophia Khadraoui-Fortune

April 24th 1998, a two-meter-high iron statue of a slave, arms raised towards the sky, breaking free from his/her chains, was erected clandestinely in Nantes, the primary French slave port of the eighteenth century. Faced with the local government’s refusal to erect a statue commemorating the 150th anniversary of the abolition of slavery, the Mémoire de l’Outre-Mer association decided, in secret, to commission a sculpture. Following the organization’s initial success of hijacking the inauguration, the statue was vandalized. It soon became a performative monument, a memorial palimpsest, and a centre stage of a symbolic combat where opponents and supporters clashed. This essay reveals the democratic praxis at the heart of this commemoration debate. With both the pressure of citizens on the political body, and the triple practice of diversion, subversion, and taking hostage of (public) space, the association thwarts the writing and power strategies of the city of Nantes and its culture of silence. Mémoire de l’Outre-Mer not only resists official discourse but subsequently imposes its own version of French history on the whitened pages of France’s colonial narrative, thus reclaiming a past, a story, an identity, by bringing to light existences and testimonies, and defining new lieux de parole.


Author(s):  
Benjamin Isaac

The city of Joppe/Jaffa/Yafo on the eastern shore of the Mediterranean, immediately south of modern Tel Aviv, has a long history of importance as an urban centre, from the Middle Bronze Age onward until the 20th century. It was one of the few sites along the Palestinian coast that had a usable anchorage. The present article focuses on the Hellenistic, Roman, and late Roman periods, giving a brief survey of the major events, the political, social, and administrative history, and the major sources of information.


Author(s):  
Andrea Gamberini

At the beginning of the thirteenth century, two new actors made their appearance in the political life of the communes: the factions and the Societas Populi. This chapter focuses on the political language and culture of these two elements, highlighting the tendency of various social actors to consistently represent the unity of the political body. This was the supreme value which neither the factions nor the Popolo would renounce, even when they were alone in power: on the contrary, in fact, it was very much in that kind of situation that the parties tended to represent themselves as ‘the whole’. The chapter then goes on to examine the role that both the factions and the Societas Populi played in fostering the first experiences of lordly government in the city.


Ritið ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 18 (2) ◽  
pp. 75-103
Author(s):  
Æsa Sigurjónsdóttir

In this article I discuss how various collective art projects involving artists and curators using the city as an exhibition site have transformed artistic discourse in Iceland. Chantal Mouffe´s conception of public space as a battleground and art practices as agnostic interventions into this space raise questions about the branding and commodification of art and cultural institutions. Mouffe believes that despite the unrestrained commercial control of the urban landscape, artists still have the possibility of intervening in the political and economic status quo. Employing Mouffe´s analyses as a guiding principle, the study confirms that the permanent value of art in public spaces need not be limited to individual artists’ form, style or content, but may be capable of mobilizing political, critical and artistic discussions within the urban community.


2019 ◽  
Vol 17 (02) ◽  
pp. 126-144
Author(s):  
Isabela Veloso Lopes Versiani ◽  
Anete Marilia Pereira

O presente artigo, de escopo teórico a partir de pesquisa bibliográfica, tem como objetivo problematizar o lazer no cotidiano urbano a partir da compreensão e da existência de territórios para sua vivência. A categoria território tem ganhado cada vez mais destaque nos estudos que discutem o espaço e as relações de poder que nele evidenciam os agentes de sua produção e condicionam a sua apropriação. Nesse sentido, pensar os espaços de lazer como territórios nos leva a refletir sobre a própria configuração do lazer nas cidades, suas contradições e disputas. Como resultados, foram identificadas duas tendências retratadas a partir de dois espaços emblemáticos nas cidades contemporâneas: a emergência do lazer em territórios do consumo – marcada por relações capitalistas de mercado e pela dimensão econômica, como nos shoppings centers; que tem se sobreposto ao lazer em territórios da cidadania – marcado pela busca de sua efetivação como um direito social e pela dimensão política, como nos espaços públicos de praças e parques. Compreende-se, assim, que as relações entre o lazer e seus espaços urbanos como territórios são permeadas por tensões e interesses divergentes que se refletem em sua apropriação cotidiana, contribuindo para ampliar as possíveis análises entre esses dois campos.   SPACES AND LEISURE EXPERIENCES IN THE CITY: building territories ABSTRACT  This article, with a theoretical scope based on bibliographical research, aims to problematize leisure in urban everyday life through the understanding and existence of territories for its experience. The territory category has gained more and more prominence in the studies that discuss the space and the relations of power that evidence the agents of its production and influence its appropriation. In this sense, thinking about leisure spaces and experiences in urban daily life leads us to reflect on the very configuration of leisure in cities, its contradictions and disputes. As results, two tendencies portrayed from two emblematic spaces in contemporary cities were identified: the emergence of leisure in territories of consumption – marked by capitalist relations of the market and by the economic dimension, like in shopping malls; which has overlapped leisure in territories of citizenship – marked by the search of its effectiveness as a social right and by the political dimension, like in public spaces such as squares and parks. It is realized, therefore, that the relations between leisure and its urban spaces as territories are permeated by divergent tensions and interests that are reflected in its daily appropriation, contributing to expand the possible analyzes between these two fields. Keywords: Space. Territory. Leisure.Consumption.Citizenship.   ESPACIOS Y VIVENCIAS DEL OCIO EN LA CIUDAD: construyendo territorios RESUMEN El presente artículo, de alcance teórico a partir de investigación bibliográfica, tiene como objetivo problematizar el ocio en el cotidiano urbano a partir de la comprensión y de la existencia de territorios para su vivencia. La categoría territorio ha ganado cada vez más destaque en los estudios que discuten el espacio y las relaciones de poder que en él evidencian los agentes de su producción y condicionan su apropiación. En ese sentido, pensar los espacios de ocio como territorios nos lleva a reflexionar sobre la propia configuración del ocio en las ciudades, sus contradicciones y disputas. Como resultados, se identificaron dos tendencias retratadas a partir de dos espacios emblemáticos en las ciudades contemporáneas: la emergencia del ocio en territorios del consumo - marcada por relaciones capitalistas de mercado y por la dimensión económica, como en los centros comerciales; que se ha superpuesto al ocio en territorios de la ciudadanía, marcado por la búsqueda de su efectividad como un derecho social y por la dimensión política, como en los espacios públicos de plazas y parques. Se comprende, así, que las relaciones entre el ocio y sus espacios urbanos como territorios están impregnadas por tensiones e intereses divergentes que se reflejan en su apropiación cotidiana, contribuyendo a ampliar las posibles análisis entre esos dos campos. Palabras clave: Espacio. Territorio. Ocio. Consumo. Ciudadanía.


Thesis Eleven ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 072551362110239
Author(s):  
Victor Albert

Brazilian society has frequently been described as polarized during the country’s recent political and economic crisis. In 2018, a wave of opposition to the centre-left Workers’ Party culminated in the election of Jair Bolsonaro, a right-wing populist who portrays the political left as a malevolent force in Brazilian society. In this paper I explore this polarization through drawing on ethnographic research with the Homeless Workers’ Movement ( Movimento de Trablhadores Sem-Teto, MTST), a large urban social movement that develops settlements on underutilized land in the city, and a prominent civil society opponent of Bolsonaro. More specifically, I examine a key site of socio-spatial tension in São Paulo, Paulista Avenue, as a new political right came to predominate on the city’s main thoroughfare during the campaign to impeach the Workers’ Party President, Dilma Rousseff. I show how the perceived intolerance of the mobilized right helped to establish new normative codes that regulated the political symbolism which could be displayed in public spaces. Lastly, I consider how the vilification of the MTST in particular and the political left in general by the new right is embedded in broader structures of stigmatization.


2018 ◽  
pp. 147-161
Author(s):  
Ana Brasil Machado

RESUMOO projeto dos ecolimites foi concebido e implementado ao longo dos anos 2000 na cidade do Rio de Janeiro. Seu objetivo manifesto era conter a expansão das favelas sobre áreas de proteção ambiental. Em uma situação geográfica particular, a da favela da Rocinha, o projeto tomou a forma de um parque urbano dotado de diversos equipamentos de lazer. Este artigo tem como objetivo discutir a implantação do Parque Ecológico da Rocinha a partir das perspectivas da esfera pública e da política urbana, contribuindo assim para o debate acerca da dimensão política dos espaços públicos.Palavras-chave: ecolimites, esfera pública, política urbana. ABSTRACTThe ecolimites project was conceived and implemented throughout the years 2000 in the city of Rio de Janeiro. Its overt goal was to contain the expansion of favelas over areas of environmental protection. In a particular geographical situation, the favela of Rocinha, the project took the form of an urban park equipped with various leisure facilities. This article aims to discuss the implementation of the Rocinha Ecological Park from the perspectives of the public sphere and urban politics, thus contributing to the debate about the political dimension of public spaces.Keywords: ecolimits, public sphere, urban politics


2020 ◽  
Vol 3 (3) ◽  
pp. p194
Author(s):  
Arnon Golan

In wartime cities become prime objects for attack and sustain different levels of destruction. The increase since the 1990s in the number and scale of violent conflicts has resulted in growing awareness of the devastating aspect of war in urban areas, which now enjoys the coinage “urbicide”. It is by far and large the outcome of the shift from research focused on the history and spatiality of armed conflicts, to a moralist-oriented approach based on the political economies and socio-cultural geographies of militarism. Yet, as portrayed in the case of Tel Aviv-Jaffa, it limits the analysis of the variety of effects of war which vary widely due to location, intensity of fighting and prevailing social, cultural and economic realities.


2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (22) ◽  
pp. 23
Author(s):  
Antonio Bailey

La situación de todos los espacios público en la ciudad de Sucre, en especial en las zonas aledañas a los mercados central y campesino, se encuentra muy deteriorada por la invasión del comercio en vías públicas. El estudio aborda la temática espacios públicos y orden urbano realizando un acercamiento a la definición de estos conceptos, tratando de comprender el rol de los espacios públicos en la vida de las ciudades. Se muestra el estado real de los espacios públicos destinados al tránsito de vehículos y personas en Sucre, cuyos resultados evidencian una ciudad sitiada por el comercio callejero que se fortalece en el discurso del derecho al trabajo y en el poder político que han adquirido sus organizaciones aprovechando un sistema político Nacional.Palabras claveEspacios públicos; ciudadanía; orden urbano; comercio callejero; redes sociales; legitimación Abstracthe situation of all public spaces in the city of Sucre, especially in the areas surrounding the central and peasant markets, is greatly deteriorated by the invasion of trade on public roads. The study addresses the theme of public spaces and urban order by approaching the definition of these concepts, trying to understand the role of public spaces in the life of cities. It shows the real state of public spaces for the transit of vehicles and people in Sucre, whose results show a city besieged by street commerce that is strengthened in the discourse of the right to work and the political power that their organizations have acquired, taking advantage of a national political system.KeywordsPublic spaces; citizenship; urban order; street trade; social networks; legitimation


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