Frontier urbanism: the periphery at the centre of contested cities

Abstract

Click to increase image sizeClick to decrease image size Acknowledgement All images are the property of Conflict in Cities©, except Figure 7 for which grateful acknowledgement is made to Bild und Heimat publishers. Notes This article forms part of a larger research project, 'Conflict in Cities and the Contested State', supported by the ESRC's Large Grants Programme (RES-060-25-0015). I am grateful to Ulf Matthiesen, for very kindly taking the time to arrange a visit to Guben/Gubin, to Lefkos Kyriacou, who has drawn the maps and contributed to the research on Nicosia and to Peter Carl, for a discussion on the frontier. Basic definitions characterise the frontier as the 'front' or 'forepart', the 'furthest limit' from settled or inhabited regions, from the centre: 'remote from the comforts of civilisation' (Oxford English Dictionary). Meanings vary according to place and language: see, Joël Kotek, 'Divided cities in the European cultural context', Progress in Planning, 52 (1999), pp.227–37; Emmanuel Brunet-Jailly, 'Theorizing Borders: An Interdisciplinary Perspective', Geopolitics, 10 (2005), pp.633–49; pp.634–35. James Anderson and Liam O'Dowd, 'Borders, Border Regions and Territoriality: Contradictory Meanings, Changing Significance', Regional Studies, 33.7 (1999), pp.593–604; p.596. On the perceived purity of the centre, see, David Sibley, Geographies of Exclusion: Society and Difference in the West (London, Routledge, 1995). J. Kotek, 'Divided cities', op. cit., p.228. Koen Vlassenroot and Karen Büscher, 'The City as Frontier: Urban Development and Identity Processes in Goma', Cities and Fragile States Working Paper 61, Series 2 (November, 2009); Crisis States Research Centre, London School of Economics, p.2: www.crisisstates.com/Publications/phase2papers.htm Anderson and O'Dowd, 'Borders, Border Regions and Territoriality', op. cit., p.596. James Ron, Frontiers and Ghettos. State Violence in Serbia and Israel (Berkeley, Los Angeles and London, University of California Press, 2003), p.xv. Ibid., pp.8–9. Eyal Weizman, 'Principles of Frontier Geography', in City of Collision. Jerusalem and the Principles of Conflict Urbanism, eds, P. Misselwitz and T. Rieniets (Basel, Boston, Berlin, Birkhauser, 2006), pp.83–92; p.91. Frederick Jackson Turner's famous 1893 theory that posited the American frontier as a place of exchange and therefore opportunity, is particularly asymmetrical in view of the subsequent demise of America's indigenous peoples; for Turner's paper, see, chapter 1, http://xroads.virginia.edu/~hyper/turner/; for critical readings of the theory, see, Howard Lamar and Leonard Thompson, eds, The Frontier in History. North America and Southern Africa Compared (New Haven and London, Yale University Press, 1981). Anderson and O'Dowd, 'Borders, Border Regions and Territoriality', op. cit., p.596. I take these terms from: Jörg Dürrschmidt, 'Between Europeanization and Marginalization – "Nest Urbanism" in a German-Polish Border Town', in Declining Cities-Developing Cities: Polish and German Perspectives, eds, Marek Nowak and Michal Nowosielski (Poznan, Instytut Zachodni, 2008), pp.57–76; p.63. The Palestinian West Bank is occupied by Israel, with many Jewish settlements. The separation barrier (wall) extends a considerable distance east of the 1967 municipal border of Jerusalem to include more settlements. All Israeli development across the green line is here referred to as 'settlement'; most Israelis distinguish between East Jerusalem and the West Bank, with the former containing 'new neighbourhoods' or 'satellites'; Palestinians usually use the term 'colonies' for all settlements. The Israeli authorities recognised the radical nature of their planning, believing it would produce an undivided Jerusalem under Israeli sovereignty: 'in the last few years Jerusalem has been moulded into a greater Jerusalem that is altering the physical and political character of the region': David Kroyanker, Jerusalem Planning and Development 1979–82 (Jerusalem, Jerusalem Institute for Israel Studies, 1982), p. 27. There has been a great deal written on the settlements. For a useful discussion of the political content inherent in their architectural functionality see, Rachel Kallus, 'The Political Role of the Everyday', City, 8.3 (2004), pp.341–61. D. Kroyanker, Planning and Development, op. cit., p.27, in a chapter entitled 'The Future of Jerusalem—For and Against the Satellite Security Belt Around the City'. D. Sibley, Geographies of Exclusion, op. cit. All major planning decisions on Jerusalem are made at national level. Simone Ricca, Reinventing Jerusalem. Israel's Reconstruction of the Jewish Quarter after 1967 (London and New York, I B Taurus, 2007). Ibid., pp.113–118. Road 1 serves Jerusalem and the settlements: see, Wendy Pullan, Philipp Misselwitz, Rami Nasrallah and Haim Yacobi, 'Jerusalem's Road 1: An Inner City Frontier?', City, 11.2 (2007), pp.175–97. On Old City settler groups see, Michael Dumper, The Politics of Sacred Space. The Old City of Jerusalem in the Middle East Conflict (Boulder and London, Lynne Rienner, 2002), pp.39–74. Some Jewish properties in the Muslim Quarter had been abandoned before 1948 and reclaimed after 1967. But Palestinians have not been allowed to reclaim any of their property lost in 1948. Many of the Jewish reclamations in the Old City have been extensively reported and documented: see the Israeli newspaper, Haaretz, especially articles by Nadav Shragai and Meron Rappaport, www.haaretz.com; also, PASSIA (Palestinian Academic Society for the Study of International Affairs), 'Jerusalem Settlement Activities and Related Policies' (June, 2009), www.passia.org Greg Myre, 'The Suburban Lure of the West Bank', New York Times (20th June, 2004). Meir Margalit, Seizing Control of Space in East Jerusalem (Jerusalem, Sifrei Aliat Gag, 2010). This is a common complaint, most recently voiced to Conflict in Cities in interviews carried out October, 2009-May, 2010. Mick Dumper and Craig Larkin, 'Political Islam in contested Jerusalem: The emerging role of Islamists from within Israel', Working Paper 12, Conflict in Cities and the Contested State, 2009; www.conflictincities.org/PDFs/WorkingPaper12_10.11.09.pdf. The power vacuum is mainly due to Israel's closure policies which isolate Jerusalem from its West Bank hinterland. Yitzhak Reiter, 'Third in holiness, first in politics: Al-Haram al-Sharif in Muslim eyes', in Sovereignty of God and Man: Sanctity and political centrality on the Temple Mount, ed., Y. Reiter (Jerusalem, The Jerusalem Institute for Israel Studies, 2001). Most prominent is the Old City Revitalisation Programme: see The Old City of Jerusalem Revitalisation Programme 1995–2009 (Jerusalem, Welfare Association, 2009). The Jerusalem Society for Welfare and Development is also active, although without publications; interviewed, Jerusalem, 2010. Much of the population of the Muslim Quarter is the urban poor: if they have the possibility of leaving, many do. The Welfare Association works with conservation groups like ICOMOS and has won the Aga Khan Award for Architecture. Neil Asher Silberman, Digging for God and Country. Exploration, archaeology, and the secret struggle for the Holy Land 1799–1917 (New York, Knopf, 1982). Most notably in the opening ceremonies of the Western Wall tunnel in 1996 when over 80 people, the majority Palestinian, were killed. Visited 10th January, 2010. Reuters and Meron Rappaport, 'City of David tunnel proceeds without proper permit', Haaretz (4th February, 2007, www.Haaretz.com; 'What's lying behind Jerusalem's secret tunnel', Middle East Online (27th March, 2008), www.middle-east-online.com/english/?id=25056; Emek Shaveh, alternative archaeology, www.alt-arch.org/. Randall Halle, 'Views from the German-Polish Border: The Exploration of Inter-national Space in Halbe Treppe and Lichter', The German Quarterly, 80.1 (2007), pp.77–96. Ulf Matthiesen and Hans-Joachim Bürkner, 'Antagonistic structures in border areas: Local milieux and local politics in the Polish-German twin city Gubin/Guben', GeoJournal, 54 (2001), pp.43–50; p.48; see also, Ulf Matthiesen, 'Transformational Pathways and Institutional Capacity Building: The Case of the German-Polish Twin City Guben/Gubin', in Urban Governance, Institutional Capacity and Social Milieux, eds, G. Cars, P. Healey, A. Madanipour and C. de Magalhães (Aldershot, Ashgate, 2002), pp.70–89. J. Dürrschmidt, 'Between Europeanization and Marginalization', op. cit., pp.64–67. On the joint projects, see Internationale Bauausstellung (IBA) Fürst-Pückler-Land, www.iba-see2010.de/en/projekte/projekt23.html. On the transnationalisation of Polish-German border towns see: R. Halle, 'Views', op. cit.; Andrew D. Asher, 'A Paradise on the Oder? ethnicity, europeanization, and the EU referendum in a Polish-German border city', City & Society, 17.1 (2005), pp. 127–152; Dürrschmidt, 'Between Europeanization and Marginalization', op. cit. Asher, ibid., p.131, remarks upon the dominance of the bridge in Frankfurt an-der-Oder/Słubice, where the river is wider, as 'symbolic of both European connection and national separation'. J. Dürrschmidt, 'Between Europeanization and Marginalization', op. cit., p.65. J. Dürrschmidt, ' "They're worse off than us"—The social construction of European space and boundaries in the German/Polish twin-city Guben-Gubin', Identities: Global Studies and Culture and Power, 9.2 (2002), pp.123–50. Arjun Appadurai, 'The Production of Locality', in Counterworks. Managing the Diversity of Knowledge, ed., Richard Fardon (London, Routledge, 1995), p.213; see also, J. Dürrschmidt and Graham Taylor, Globalization, Modernity and Social Change. Hotspots of Transition (Basingstoke and New York, Palgrave Macmillan, 2007), pp.42–46. Yiannis Pappadakis, Echoes from the Dead Zone. Across the Cyprus Divide (London and New York, I B Tauris, 2005). Ibid.; Resmıye Alpar Atun and Nacıye Doratli, 'Walls in Cities: A Conceptual Approach to the Walls of Nicosia', Geopolitics, 14.1 (2009), pp.108–34. Cypriots on both sides have turned away from their historic centre in favour of newer, less memory-laden parts of the city; such neglect is a problem repeatedly voiced in interviews held in north and south Nicosia with the Nicosia Master Plan team (Conflict in Cities, March, 2009). For information on the Master Plan, from a Greek Cypriot viewpoint, see The Nicosia Municipality, www.nicosia.org.cy/english/epikoinonia.shtm. The following descriptions of the two museums are taken from my own visits in March, 2009. On the museums see: Yiannis Papadakis, 'The national struggle museums of a divided city', Ethnic and Racial Studies, 17.3 (1994), pp.400–419; Y. Pappadakis, Echoes, op. cit., pp.175–78; Debbie Lisle, 'Encounters with Partition: Tourism and Reconciliation in Cyprus', in Contested Spaces. Sites, Representations and Histories of Conflict, eds, Louise Purbrick, Jim Aulich, Graham Dawson (Basingstoke and New York, Palgrave Macmillan, 2007), pp.94–117. On the postmodern propensity to invert the centre and periphery in certain urban functions, see Francesco Pellizzi, 'Airports and museums: New frontiers of the urban and suburban', Res: Anthropology and Aesthetics, 53-54 (2008), pp. 334–344. No photographs were permitted of the military complex. When I visited in 2009, the Byzantine Museum advertised an exhibition of photographs of Greek Cypriot treasures 'looted by the Turks and sold to German museums.' Lisle notes, despite official Greek Cyprus's desire to belittle it, 'the conflict is always present' and earlier struggles can be updated: 'Encounters', op. cit., pp.104–5). The northern Museum is also of interest to visitors from the Turkish mainland (Lisle, 'Encounters', op. cit., pp.100–101). The southern Museum uses only Greek in its displays. As is evident in Jerusalem, even with some of the worst effects of the occupation: see, Wendy Pullan, 'Locating the Civic in the Frontier: Damascus Gate', in Did Someone Say Participate? An Atlas of Spatial Practice, eds, M. Miessen and S. Basar (Cambridge Mass., and London, The MIT Press and Frankfurt, Revolver, 2006), pp.109–22.