Real Estate & Planning Research Seminar, in person Presentation by Prof Yosef Jabareen from the Institute of Technology, Israel "The Contribution of State Spatial Policies in Constructing Fear among Different Ethnic Groups: The Case of Planning Jerusalem"

If you would like to attend this Seminar please contact our Department Office at repschooloffice@reading.ac.uk for further details, giving your name and organisation/company details

Abstract

The Contribution of State Spatial Policies in Constructing Fear among Different Ethnic Groups: The Case of Planning Jerusalem

Prof Yosef Jabareen, Faculty of Architecture and Town Planning, at Technion, Institute of Technology, Israel.

This study examines how state spatial planning policy contributes to forming landscapes of fear among different ethnic groups in cities. The conceptual challenge is to unravel the contribution of people's perceptions of fear and their spatial practices and the state planning policy to constructing the map of fears in cities. This study focuses on Jerusalem, a city of deep conflict between Israeli Jews and Palestinians. Data collection is based on personal interviews through structured questionnaires distributed among two random samples of Jews and Palestinians in Jerusalem. Spatial analysis visualized people's perceptions of fear and spatial practices and produced GIS maps of fears. The findings suggest that the perceptions of fear and fear-based practices capture the boundaries between Jewish and Palestinian neighbourhoods, positioning everything within as 'us' and outside as the 'other.' In this way, all Jewish neighbourhoods, from the secular to the ultraorthodox and from the low-income to the high-income neighbourhoods, are on one side of the divide, and the Palestinian populated areas are on the other. To conclude, as a powerful spatial agent, the state imposes its hegemonic social and spatial order, producing disparities among urban groups and constructing a new landscape of fear in cities.