Periodic Reporting for period 1 - Divided communities (Communities Under Siege: Everyday Challenges in the Divided City of Jerusalem )
Berichtszeitraum: 2018-04-01 bis 2020-03-31
Divided Communities addresses the challenges of urban planning and community mobilization in the contested city of (East) Jerusalem. The research sought to give voice to geographically and socially divided communities that have experienced the hardships of the polarized geography of the city—namely, Palestinians and Israeli Palestinians East Jerusalem residents—and elucidate the coping mechanisms they employ in their everyday lives with respect to urban planning, infrastructure, and local leadership. While the ‘divided cities’ framework—and research on the geopolitics of Jerusalem more broadly—have placed little emphasis on the agency and grassroots aspects of Palestinian communities in Jerusalem, this research made these front and center.
The overarching objective of this research was to study the ongoing dynamics of integration and exclusion in three Palestinian and Israeli-Palestinian East Jerusalem divided communities with respect to planning, infrastructure, and services. The general questions motivating the proposed research were: (1) What are the major threats and pressures that these Palestinian communities face? What are the major differences and similarities between them? (2) Who are the major actors involved in the governance and management of these different communities, both governmental and ‘bottom up?’ What are their motivations and barriers? (3) What are the major mechanisms that these communities employ to overcome or mitigate the structural difficulties they face? (4) To what extent are these governance models and mechanisms of transformation unique to divided cities, or can they be transferred to other more ‘ordinary’ cases of underserved communities? In order to answer these questions, the neighbourhoods were compared and contrasted according to four key parameters: a) governance, b) local leadership), c) housing, and d) municipal services and public infrastructure. Special emphasis was placed on the neighbourhood scale and on the agency of the communities under study.
To support this framework, the study used qualitative methodologies to explore everyday settings of community mobilization and leadership around urban planning issues in East Jerusalem, focusing in particular on how everyday life can transcend political challenges and how a neighbourhood-level reading of the city alters our knowledge on urban politics. Over 80 in-depth interviews were conducted with different stakeholder groups, as well as participant observations and urban walks.
The project’s theoretical framework suggested to explore the dynamics of community engagement in urban issues through a global-south perspective that helps illuminate the extent of, and the ways in which, ‘bottom-up’ forces influence urban development. ‘Theorizing from Jerusalem’ emphasizes the various and intersectional logics that operate in contested urban spaces such as ethnicity, capitalism, gender, oppression and resistance, religion, and nationalism. Employing the notion of Urban Citizenship, the project has called for a more nuanced understanding of the term, bearing in mind a context where urban residents are state-less citizens due to geopolitical contestations. Exploring the quotidian challenges of marginalized communities from their own perspective has expanded our understanding of life under political and national barriers, which contributes to a more inclusionary theorization in urban planning and related fields. It is timely as the challenges of living in complex and polarized urban environments, e.g. divided cities, only grow stronger yet are understudied.
While the research focused on Jerusalem, findings from the research would be applicable to a host of marginalized communities worldwide, in both ‘divided’ and ‘ordinary’ cities.
The overarching objective of this research was to study the ongoing dynamics of integration and exclusion in three Palestinian and Israeli-Palestinian East Jerusalem divided communities with respect to planning, infrastructure, and services. The general questions motivating the proposed research were: (1) What are the major threats and pressures that these Palestinian communities face? What are the major differences and similarities between them? (2) Who are the major actors involved in the governance and management of these different communities, both governmental and ‘bottom up?’ What are their motivations and barriers? (3) What are the major mechanisms that these communities employ to overcome or mitigate the structural difficulties they face? (4) To what extent are these governance models and mechanisms of transformation unique to divided cities, or can they be transferred to other more ‘ordinary’ cases of underserved communities? In order to answer these questions, the neighbourhoods were compared and contrasted according to four key parameters: a) governance, b) local leadership), c) housing, and d) municipal services and public infrastructure. Special emphasis was placed on the neighbourhood scale and on the agency of the communities under study.
To support this framework, the study used qualitative methodologies to explore everyday settings of community mobilization and leadership around urban planning issues in East Jerusalem, focusing in particular on how everyday life can transcend political challenges and how a neighbourhood-level reading of the city alters our knowledge on urban politics. Over 80 in-depth interviews were conducted with different stakeholder groups, as well as participant observations and urban walks.
The project’s theoretical framework suggested to explore the dynamics of community engagement in urban issues through a global-south perspective that helps illuminate the extent of, and the ways in which, ‘bottom-up’ forces influence urban development. ‘Theorizing from Jerusalem’ emphasizes the various and intersectional logics that operate in contested urban spaces such as ethnicity, capitalism, gender, oppression and resistance, religion, and nationalism. Employing the notion of Urban Citizenship, the project has called for a more nuanced understanding of the term, bearing in mind a context where urban residents are state-less citizens due to geopolitical contestations. Exploring the quotidian challenges of marginalized communities from their own perspective has expanded our understanding of life under political and national barriers, which contributes to a more inclusionary theorization in urban planning and related fields. It is timely as the challenges of living in complex and polarized urban environments, e.g. divided cities, only grow stronger yet are understudied.
While the research focused on Jerusalem, findings from the research would be applicable to a host of marginalized communities worldwide, in both ‘divided’ and ‘ordinary’ cities.
Through its methodological and conceptual innovations, the project resulted in new knowledge that activates a nuanced and situated understanding of everyday life in a contested city. The project mapped out different stakeholders that are involved in urban planning issues in East Jerusalem, focusing on local leadership, grassroots and community organizations, and providing a state-of-the-art understanding of their modes of operation, challenges and opportunities.
From April 2018 to March 2020 the following work and research activities were conducted:
80 in-depth interviews with neighbourhood residents, women who in leadership positions, directors of local community councils, urban planners and NGOs and community organizations' employees.
Participant observation in four community events (e.g. place-making activities and activists’ meetings)
Eight walking tours in the neighbourhood under-study with different experts (urban planners, architects, community activists)
Training of research assistants and graduate students
The project was delivered throughout the process at academic and public events that the PI participated in and/or organized in Jerusalem, Berlin, New Delhi, Athens, and London. Besides conventional peer-reviewed research articles , innovative dissemination activities and formats such as a co-organized conference, workshop, walking tour, and an exhibition were produced within the project duration. The public outreach formats have been practiced and communicated through academic and civil society partnerships within and beyond Europe, including Canada and the US. These collaborations started during the lifetime of the project, and Dr. Avni continues to interact with these organizations as an extension of the official dissemination program of the project.
From April 2018 to March 2020 the following work and research activities were conducted:
80 in-depth interviews with neighbourhood residents, women who in leadership positions, directors of local community councils, urban planners and NGOs and community organizations' employees.
Participant observation in four community events (e.g. place-making activities and activists’ meetings)
Eight walking tours in the neighbourhood under-study with different experts (urban planners, architects, community activists)
Training of research assistants and graduate students
The project was delivered throughout the process at academic and public events that the PI participated in and/or organized in Jerusalem, Berlin, New Delhi, Athens, and London. Besides conventional peer-reviewed research articles , innovative dissemination activities and formats such as a co-organized conference, workshop, walking tour, and an exhibition were produced within the project duration. The public outreach formats have been practiced and communicated through academic and civil society partnerships within and beyond Europe, including Canada and the US. These collaborations started during the lifetime of the project, and Dr. Avni continues to interact with these organizations as an extension of the official dissemination program of the project.
The project resulted in three journal articles that have been published or are under revision and two more in writing, one policy paper, and two (co-organized) events at a conference designed for policy-makers and activists. The PI attended three international and two domestic conferences, four international workshops, one ongoing COST-ACTION meeting, and one expert-group visit to Bosnia, and gave four invited talks in Israel and India to present the project outputs. She also attended several training programs to expand her networks and further develop skills, specifically in the area of Divided Cities and comparative research. The PI was also a co-convener of a research-action group for young scholars and the convener of a writing group for young scholars in urban studies. She also collaborated with local institutions such as the Jerusalem Institute for Policy Research and the Israeli Society for Community Centres that are active in urban policy issues. Through the knowledge exchange between these organizations and the project, Divided Communities activities and deliverables gained higher visibility reaching approximately 3000 people from various academic and non-academic settings. Overall, the project was successful primarily in terms of its theoretical contributions to understanding conflict at the micro-urban scale under conditions of contested geopolitics. It also generated new knowledge on the lives of East Jerusalemite Palestinians and their involvement in urban issues, which can be useful to policy-making.