Applying the analytical skills of architecture and planning as a means to expose the present spatial reality and the mechanisms of spatial domination that construct and maintain it. These include the ability to carry out spatial research in itself – interrogating maps, aerial photographs, planning documents and legal documents, and the undertaking of empirical surveys – and the means to synthesise and communicate its findings in a vivid and graphically compelling manner to a wider audience.
In their latest project, DAAR (Decolonizing Architecture Art Residency) investigate the site of the abandoned ‘Palestinian Parliament’ building in East Jerusalem, attempting to spatialise questions of democratic representation within a ‘deterritorialized’ Palestinian diaspora, and to imagine an ‘extra-territorial’ space of assembly “that is able to represent all Palestinians: those living in Israel, under its occupation, […]
by Darryl Li This essay is based on a lecture delivered at the University of Palestine Law Faculty in Gaza, 2 July 2011. It was originally posted on Jadaliyya, and is re-posted on arenaofspeculation.org with permission from the author. Darryl Li is a doctoral candidate in Anthropology and Middle Eastern Studies at Harvard University and […]
Exclusive to arenaofspeculation.org, Linda Quiquivix shares her recent interview with independent scholar and author Denis Wood. Follow link below for the full interview: Interview: “Maps and the Question of Palestine” Denis Wood has been writing critically about maps for the past four decades. His recently published Rethinking the Power of Maps (Guilford Press, 2010) argues […]
By Sami Kishawi This article was originally published by the Electronic Intifada on 7 July 2011 and is republished on arenaofpeculation.org with permission from the author. You can read more of Sami’s dispatches from Gaza on his blog ‘Sixteen Minutes to Palestine’ Many of the people I’ve spoken to in Gaza City don’t object to […]
The right to history, to individual and collective memories of the past, and to a self-determined perspective on the future were at the core of the Nakba commemorations across the world on 15th May. The Subjective Atlas of Palestine, edited by Annelys de Vet and published by 010 Publishers, seems to offer an embodiment of […]
by Sami Kishawi At a moment of immense hope following the Egyptian announcement that the Rafah crossing is soon to be permanently reopened, Sami Kishawi offers a personal reflection on the untold history of the siege of Gaza, prior to the 2005 Israeli ‘pull-out’. This article was originally published on Sami’s blog ‘Sixteen Minutes to […]
Adalah, the Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel, recently published Volume 2 of Makan (meaning ‘Place’ in Arabic), their periodic journal for Land, Planning and Justice. This volume reveals the centrality of spatial planning and urban design in the continued suppression of Palestinian history and memory. Indeed, it is argued that this erasure […]
In their 7th annual conference in London, entitled ‘Past is Present: Settler Colonialism in Palestine’, the SOAS (School of Oriental and Aftrican Studies) Palestine Society have chosen to focus on the theme of ‘settler colonialism’, both in terms of its history and its ongoing relevance as a point of focus in the struggle for justice […]
A new online publication exploring the planning-citizenship relationship in the context of urban space and a particular form of government, the ethnocracy. The case of Tel Aviv-Jaffa is used to illustrate these dynamics and highlight the potential of urban social movements to advance their struggle for urban justice to substantive citizenship.
by Nasser Abourahme and Sandi Hilal An extract from the forthcoming article: “Political Subjectification, the Production of Space and the Folding of Polarity: the case of Deheishe Camp, Palestine” in James Holston and Teresa Caldeira (eds.) Peripheries: Decentering Urban Theory, University of California Berkeley Press. (Republished on arenaofspeculation.org with permission from the authors.) In discussing […]
Now on sale, the Atlas of the Conflict represents the most comprehensive effort yet to offer a spatial mapping of the contemporary geography of Israel-Palestine and the history of its shaping. Architect Malkit Shoshan (Foundation for Achieving Seamless Territory) has produced a wide ranging and graphically rich publication likely to become an essential primer for […]
A new online publication offering a contextual framing of architectural intervention within the arena of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Linking contemporary acts of ‘critical spatial practice’ on the ground with the wider trajectory of the spatial struggle.