Modern urban spaces are, by definition, mixed socio-spatial configurations. In many ways, their enduring success and vitality lie in the richness of their ethnic texture and ongoing exchange of economic goods, cultural practices, political ideas and social movements. This mixture, however, is rarely harmonious and has often led to violent conflict over land and identity. Focusing on mixed towns in Israel/Palestine, this insightful volume theorizes the relationship between modernity and nationalism and the social dynamics which engender and characterize the growth of urban spaces and the emergence therein of inter-communal relations. For more than a century, Arabs and Jews have been interacting in the workplaces, residential areas, commercial enterprises, cultural arenas and political theatres of mixed towns. Defying prevailing Manichean oppositions, these towns both exemplify and resist the forces of nationalist segregation. In this interdisciplinary volume, a new generation of Israeli and Palestinian scholars come together to explore ways in which these towns have been perceived as utopian or dystopian and whether they are best conceptualized as divided, dual or colonial. Identifying ethnically mixed towns as a historically specific analytic category, this volume calls for further research, comparison and debate.

Modern urban spaces are, by definition, mixed socio-spatial configurations. In many ways, their enduring success and vitality lie in the richness of their ethnic texture and ongoing exchange of economic goods, cultural practices, political ideas and social movements. This mixture, however, is rarely harmonious and has often led to violent conflict over land and identity. Focusing on mixed towns in Israel/Palestine, this insightful volume theorizes the relationship between modernity and nationalism and the social dynamics which engender and characterize the growth of urban spaces and the emergence therein of inter-communal relations. For more than a century, Arabs and Jews have been interacting in the workplaces, residential areas, commercial enterprises, cultural arenas and political theatres of mixed towns. Defying prevailing Manichean oppositions, these towns both exemplify and resist the forces of nationalist segregation. In this interdisciplinary volume, a new generation of Israeli and Palestinian scholars come together to explore ways in which these towns have been perceived as utopian or dystopian and whether they are best conceptualized as divided, dual or colonial. Identifying ethnically mixed towns as a historically specific analytic category, this volume calls for further research, comparison and debate.

Territorial borders, identity borders, and many other kinds of social and cultural borders are constantly questioned in Israel-Palestine. Reapproaching Borders: New Perspectives on the Study of Israel-Palestine explores the concept of borders, how they are imagined and actualized in this deeply contested land. The book focuses on the 'implicate relations' between Palestinian Arabs and Jews, providing new insights into the origins and dynamics of the conflicts between them. Emphasizing the history of the non-elite members of both communities, the book sees the relations between Jews and Palestinian Arabs as embedded and reflected in areas of daily living, such as in the spheres of architecture, commerce, health sexuality, and the courts. Using the voices of the new generation of scholars, Reapproaching Borders demonstrates the continued saliency of older themes such as ownership and rights to the land, but as they intersect with the newer areas of inquiry, such as sexual identity politics and spatial relations.

Against the background of unease at the increasingly loose and conflictual relationship between citizenship and governance, this book brings together rich, ethnographic studies from EU member states and post-Communist and Middle-Eastern countries in the Mediterranean Region to illustrate the crisis of legitimacy inherent in the weakening link between political responsibility and trust in the exercise of power. With close attention to the impact of the ambiguities and distortions of governance at the local level and their broader implications at the international level, where a state's legitimacy depends on its democratic credentials, Citizenship and the Legitimacy of Governance initiates a comparative discussion of the relationship between established moralities, politics, law and civil society in a highly diversified region with a strong history of cultural exchange. Demonstrating that a comparative anthropological analysis has much to offer to our understanding, this volume reveals that the city is a crucial arena for the renegotiation of citizenship, democracy and belonging.

The city of Jaffa presents a paradox: intimate neighbors who are political foes. The official Jewish national tale proceeds from exile to redemption and nation-building, while the Palestinians' is one of a golden age cut short, followed by dispossession and resistance. The experiences of Jaffa's Jewish and Arab residents, however, reveal lives and nationalist sentiments far more complex. Twilight Nationalism shares the stories of ten of the city's elders—women and men, rich and poor, Muslims, Jews, and Christians—to radically deconstruct these national myths and challenge common understandings of belonging and alienation. Through the stories told at life's end, Daniel Monterescu and Haim Hazan illuminate how national affiliation ultimately gives way to existential circumstances. Similarities in lives prove to be shaped far more by socioeconomic class, age, and gender than national allegiance, and intersections between stories usher in a politics of existence in place of politics of identity. In offering the real stories individuals tell about themselves, this book reveals shared perspectives too long silenced and new understandings of local community previously lost in nationalist narratives.

The Organic Globalizer is a collection of critical essays which takes the position that hip-hop holds political significance through an understanding of its ability to at once raise cultural awareness, expand civil society's focus on social and economic justice through institution building, and engage in political activism and participation. Collectively, the essays assert hip hop's importance as an "organic globalizer:" no matter its pervasiveness or reach around the world, hip-hop ultimately remains a grassroots phenomenon that is born of the community from which it permeates. Hip hop, then, holds promise through three separate but related avenues: (1) through cultural awareness and identification/recognition of voices of marginalized communities through music and art; (2) through social creation and the institutionalization of independent alternative institutions and non-profit organizations in civil society geared toward social and economic justice; and (3) through political activism and participation in which demands are articulated and made on the state. With editorial bridges between chapters and an emphasis on interdisciplinary and diverse perspectives, The Organic Globalizer is the natural scholarly evolution in the conversation about hip-hop and politics.

Groundbreaking essays by Palestinian women scholars on the lives of Palestinians within the state of Israel. Most media coverage and research on the experience of Palestinians focuses on those living in the West Bank or the Gaza Strip, while the sizable number of Palestinians living within Israel rarely garners significant academic or media attention. Offering a rich and multidimensional portrait of the lived realities of Palestinians within the state of Israel, Displaced at Home gathers a group of Palestinian women scholars who present unflinching critiques of the complexities and challenges inherent in the lives of this understudied but important minority within Israel. The essays here engage topics ranging from internal refugees and historical memory to women’s sexuality and the resistant possibilities of hip-hop culture among young Palestinians. Unique in the collection is sustained attention to gender concerns, which have tended to be subordinated to questions of nationalism, statehood, and citizenship. The first collection of its kind in English, Displaced at Home presents on-the-ground examples of the changing political, social, and economic conditions of Palestinians in Israel, and examines how global, national, and local concerns intersect and shape their daily lives. “ the volume is distinctive in bringing together the historical and the contemporary, the dramatic and the mundane In their combination of empirical innovation and theoretical sophistication, these chapters and the volume as a whole, make an important contribution to the academic scholarship of and about the Palestinians” — Review of Middle East Studies “By intertwining the themes of ethnicity and gender, Displaced at Home breaks new ground, presenting a counter narrative to studies that posit the Palestinian citizens of Israel only as manipulated and victimised, as well as to Palestinian nationalist histories which present society as monolithic The fact that all twelve contributors are Palestinian women, citizens of Israel, gives their research an immediacy and authenticity that make the book engrossing as well as highly informative.” — Jordan Times “Informative, insightful, and thought-provoking.” — Mary N. Layoun, author of Wedded to the Land? Gender, Boundaries, and Nationalism in Crisis “This groundbreaking book helps to fill a huge gap in research on Palestinians in Israel.” — Amal Amireh, author of The Factory Girl and the Seamstress: Imagining Gender and Class in Nineteenth-Century American Fiction

Edited by François Depelteau and Christopher Powell, this volume and its companion, Conceptualizing Relational Sociology: Ontological and Theoretical Issues, addresses fundamental questions about what relational sociology is and how it works.

Presenting the current debate about cities in the Middle East from Sana’a, Beirut and Jerusalem to Cairo, Marrakesh and Gaza, the book explores urban planning and policy, migration, gender and identity as well as politics and economics of urban settings in the region. This handbook moves beyond essentialist and reductive analyses of identity, urban politics, planning, and development in cities in the Middle East, and instead offers critical engagement with both historical and contemporary urban processes in the region. Approaching "Cities" as multi-dimensional sites, products of political processes, knowledge production and exchange, and local and global visions as well as spatial artefacts. Importantly, in the different case studies and theoretical approaches, there is no attempt to idealise urban politics, planning, and everyday life in the Middle East –– which (as with many other cities elsewhere) are also situations of contestation and violence –– but rather to highlight how cities in the region, and especially those which are understudied, revolve around issues of housing, infrastructure, participation and identity, amongst other concerns. Analysing a variety of cities in the Middle East, the book is a significant contribution to Middle East Studies. It is an essential resource for students and academics interested in Geography, Regional and Urban Studies of the Middle East.