Slow Urbicide: A New Materialist Account of Political Violence in Palestine

Description

The book presents a new materialist understanding of acts of deliberate destruction of the built environment and, specifically, of the politics of aggressive spatial containment and regularization of urbanity employed within the conflict in Israel/Palestine. Building on recent scholarship on slow violence and urbicidal policies, it discusses the different dimensions of the violence against the urban space, as well as exposes the complex material-semiotic character of the urban territory and of its destruction. By referring to the concepts of “ethno-territoriality” and “the right to the city,” the book aims to generate an enhanced understanding of problems situated at the overlap of urban studies and investigations of state-sponsored violence, focusing specifically on issues related to urban warfare. Adopting a new materialist perspective, the book is a searing examination of political violence in our times. The volume will be of great interest to scholars and researchers of political science, international relations, cultural studies, and urban studies. It will also appeal to NGO professionals and activists across the world. Cover Half Title Title Page Copyright Page Table of Contents Figures Acknowledgments Introduction: Politics of Destruction Urbanity Under Siege Slow Violence, Slow Urbicide The Politics of Space Ethno-territoriality The Right to the City Design of the Book Notes Bibliography Chapter 1 New Materialism and the Study of Political Violence War as Practice Situating New Materialism Agency Undone Political Violence Through a New Materialist Lens Notes Bibliography Chapter 2 Mapping Urbicidal Violence Urbanity as Target Toward a (New) Materialist Understanding A Topology of Concepts Notes Bibliography Chapter 3 Geographical Warfare in Palestine Lethal Geographies, Slow Violences Case Study 1. Cartographies of Domination in the West Bank Violent Cartographies Environmental Injustice Parallel Geographies Case Study 2. Regularization in the Naqab/Negev Desert Technologies of Drawing The Violence of Urbanization Landscape Politics Notes Bibliography Conclusions Bibliography Index