Michal Hu
Biographic Data
| ID | 3721131 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Michal Hu |
| GIVEN NAMES | Michal |
| FAMILY NAME | Hu |
| SIGNATURE | HU M |
| AFFILIATIONS | Durham University |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-0386-9815 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 11 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 23 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 11 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2019 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 3 |
Bulldozer violence
This article theorises bulldozer violence as a distinctive modality of planetary urbanisation through which contemporary urban development increasingly proceeds via mechanised displacement, territorial erasure, and political spectacle. We develop a fourfold theoretical framework that defines bulldozer violence as a political technology of spatial governance, reconceptualises planetary urbanisation as a dialectic of development through erasure, an…
Ghosts of redevelopment
Retheorizing environmental in/justice from the margins
Walking tours as transcultural memory activism
This article maps two grids of city walking tours, conceptualizing them as expressions of transcultural memory activism. The first are walking tours in Berlin, guided by Syrian refugees, which use memorials of local traumatic history to testify to the refugees' current traumas. The second are walking tours in an impoverished neighbourhood of south Tel Aviv, that inter-weave African asylum seekers' travelling memories as part of the story of those…
On spaciocide and resistance
"You cannot really live (or die) here" - Ongoing struggles over Muslim cemeteries in Tel Aviv-Jaffa, 1957-2020
The article examines the Muslim community's struggle to maintain their cemeteries in Tel Aviv-Jaffa, and highlights a broader geo-temporal interpretation of the indigenous right-to-the-city. We analyse a succession of mobilizations against sales and demolitions of Muslim cemeteries across the city since the 1950s and investigate how activists recently gained tangible achievements by framing their protest as an urban citizenship mobilization. We s…
The transgressive art of walking
This article studies the entanglement of urban activism and educational tourism, considering its constraints and potential for political agency, as manifested in guided walking tours of south Tel Aviv. Through an analysis of the historical and geographical context of south Tel Aviv, the article emphasises the necessity of a spatial analysis for unpacking the politics of racial fear and the reception of asylum seekers. In parallel, the article emp…
Paths of Erasure and Trails of Resistance in a Neo‐Settler‐Colonial City
Urban displacement is receiving growing visibility within urban studies. However, most literature centres on the logic of late capitalism and tends to neglect colonial history and local resistance to displacement. This paper takes an alternative path: it relates (a) the history of colonialism and ethnic cleansing of the city of Jaffa with (b) the present‐day gentrification and displacement caused by neoliberal urbanism. To unpack this entanglemen…
Jaffa's contested heritage trails
The article concerns the role of heritage sites and performances in fuelling as well as resisting colonial domination over space and memory in the city of Jaffa. Using this case study, it maps the ways urban planning, preservation practices, and a spectrum of official and grassroots walking tours can enhance or challenge cities’ official memory lanes and paths of erasure. The article draws on a study conducted between 2017 and 2020 on the politic…
Autotopographies of Forced Displacement
Though forced displacement is prominent within academic research, as well as within public, political, and media debates, all too often the image of forcibly displaced persons is that of voiceless victims and the structural causes behind their trauma are overlooked. The article works to disrupt this problematic visualization through an original study of walking tours offered by refugees and internally displaced persons in Berlin and Jaffa. It uti…
Mapping the Occupation
The ‘mapping procedure’ is a routine military operation of the Israeli Army in which soldiers map the houses of civilians, collect personal details of family members or take a photograph of the family. The ‘Information’ collected in the ‘mapping procedure’ is not archived or passed to the intelligence services following the operation. As the documentation produced is not collected, the central question of this paper concerns how the ‘mapping proc…
Mapping the Occupation
The ‘mapping procedure’ is a routine military operation of the Israeli Army in which soldiers map the houses of civilians, collect personal details of family members or take a photograph of the family. The ‘Information’ collected in the ‘mapping procedure’ is not archived or passed to the intelligence services following the operation. As the documentation produced is not collected, the central question of this paper concerns how the ‘mapping proc…
The transgressive art of walking
This article studies the entanglement of urban activism and educational tourism, considering its constraints and potential for political agency, as manifested in guided walking tours of south Tel Aviv. Through an analysis of the historical and geographical context of south Tel Aviv, the article emphasises the necessity of a spatial analysis for unpacking the politics of racial fear and the reception of asylum seekers. In parallel, the article emp…
Autotopographies of Forced Displacement
Though forced displacement is prominent within academic research, as well as within public, political, and media debates, all too often the image of forcibly displaced persons is that of voiceless victims and the structural causes behind their trauma are overlooked. The article works to disrupt this problematic visualization through an original study of walking tours offered by refugees and internally displaced persons in Berlin and Jaffa. It uti…
Walking tours as transcultural memory activism
This article maps two grids of city walking tours, conceptualizing them as expressions of transcultural memory activism. The first are walking tours in Berlin, guided by Syrian refugees, which use memorials of local traumatic history to testify to the refugees' current traumas. The second are walking tours in an impoverished neighbourhood of south Tel Aviv, that inter-weave African asylum seekers' travelling memories as part of the story of those…
Jaffa's contested heritage trails
The article concerns the role of heritage sites and performances in fuelling as well as resisting colonial domination over space and memory in the city of Jaffa. Using this case study, it maps the ways urban planning, preservation practices, and a spectrum of official and grassroots walking tours can enhance or challenge cities’ official memory lanes and paths of erasure. The article draws on a study conducted between 2017 and 2020 on the politic…
"You cannot really live (or die) here" - Ongoing struggles over Muslim cemeteries in Tel Aviv-Jaffa, 1957-2020
The article examines the Muslim community's struggle to maintain their cemeteries in Tel Aviv-Jaffa, and highlights a broader geo-temporal interpretation of the indigenous right-to-the-city. We analyse a succession of mobilizations against sales and demolitions of Muslim cemeteries across the city since the 1950s and investigate how activists recently gained tangible achievements by framing their protest as an urban citizenship mobilization. We s…
On spaciocide and resistance
Paths of Erasure and Trails of Resistance in a Neo‐Settler‐Colonial City
Urban displacement is receiving growing visibility within urban studies. However, most literature centres on the logic of late capitalism and tends to neglect colonial history and local resistance to displacement. This paper takes an alternative path: it relates (a) the history of colonialism and ethnic cleansing of the city of Jaffa with (b) the present‐day gentrification and displacement caused by neoliberal urbanism. To unpack this entanglemen…
Mapping the Occupation
The ‘mapping procedure’ is a routine military operation of the Israeli Army in which soldiers map the houses of civilians, collect personal details of family members or take a photograph of the family. The ‘Information’ collected in the ‘mapping procedure’ is not archived or passed to the intelligence services following the operation. As the documentation produced is not collected, the central question of this paper concerns how the ‘mapping proc…
Autotopographies of Forced Displacement
Though forced displacement is prominent within academic research, as well as within public, political, and media debates, all too often the image of forcibly displaced persons is that of voiceless victims and the structural causes behind their trauma are overlooked. The article works to disrupt this problematic visualization through an original study of walking tours offered by refugees and internally displaced persons in Berlin and Jaffa. It uti…
Paths of Erasure and Trails of Resistance in a Neo‐Settler‐Colonial City
Urban displacement is receiving growing visibility within urban studies. However, most literature centres on the logic of late capitalism and tends to neglect colonial history and local resistance to displacement. This paper takes an alternative path: it relates (a) the history of colonialism and ethnic cleansing of the city of Jaffa with (b) the present‐day gentrification and displacement caused by neoliberal urbanism. To unpack this entanglemen…
Jaffa's contested heritage trails
The article concerns the role of heritage sites and performances in fuelling as well as resisting colonial domination over space and memory in the city of Jaffa. Using this case study, it maps the ways urban planning, preservation practices, and a spectrum of official and grassroots walking tours can enhance or challenge cities’ official memory lanes and paths of erasure. The article draws on a study conducted between 2017 and 2020 on the politic…
Walking tours as transcultural memory activism
This article maps two grids of city walking tours, conceptualizing them as expressions of transcultural memory activism. The first are walking tours in Berlin, guided by Syrian refugees, which use memorials of local traumatic history to testify to the refugees' current traumas. The second are walking tours in an impoverished neighbourhood of south Tel Aviv, that inter-weave African asylum seekers' travelling memories as part of the story of those…
On spaciocide and resistance
"You cannot really live (or die) here" - Ongoing struggles over Muslim cemeteries in Tel Aviv-Jaffa, 1957-2020
The article examines the Muslim community's struggle to maintain their cemeteries in Tel Aviv-Jaffa, and highlights a broader geo-temporal interpretation of the indigenous right-to-the-city. We analyse a succession of mobilizations against sales and demolitions of Muslim cemeteries across the city since the 1950s and investigate how activists recently gained tangible achievements by framing their protest as an urban citizenship mobilization. We s…
The transgressive art of walking
This article studies the entanglement of urban activism and educational tourism, considering its constraints and potential for political agency, as manifested in guided walking tours of south Tel Aviv. Through an analysis of the historical and geographical context of south Tel Aviv, the article emphasises the necessity of a spatial analysis for unpacking the politics of racial fear and the reception of asylum seekers. In parallel, the article emp…
Ghosts of redevelopment
Retheorizing environmental in/justice from the margins
Bulldozer violence
This article theorises bulldozer violence as a distinctive modality of planetary urbanisation through which contemporary urban development increasingly proceeds via mechanised displacement, territorial erasure, and political spectacle. We develop a fourfold theoretical framework that defines bulldozer violence as a political technology of spatial governance, reconceptualises planetary urbanisation as a dialectic of development through erasure, an…
Politics (8 works) · Political science (7 works) · Sociology (6 works) · Law (5 works) · Memory, Trauma, and Commemoration (5 works) · Migration, Refugees, and Integration (5 works) · Archaeology (4 works) · Gender Studies (4 works) · Gender Studies (4 works) · History (4 works)