Tracing Walkability Through Disruption Assemblages in Aleppo’s (Post‐)Conflict Historic Core
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 22018399 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Diana Salahieh (0009-0005-1590-682X, Czech Technical University in Prague), Layla Zibar (0000-0002-3079-0547, Institute of Criminology) |
| Year | 2025 |
| Volume | 10 |
| Publication date | 2025-06-30 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Urban Planning (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 2183-7635 • E-ISSN: 2183-7635 |
| Publisher | Cogitatio (PUBLISHER • PT) |
| DOI | 10.17645/up.9605 |
| OpenAlex | W4411792201 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 1 |
| References cited | 45 |
War disrupts the symbiotic interplay between bodies and built environments, unravelling familiar routines and destabilizing urban life. Walking, thus, becomes a precarious tiptoeing through danger and continual re‐routing, a spatial practice of survival and resistance, asserting presence and agency amid violence. Consequently, urbicidal practices and persistent insecurities reconfigure walkability, undermining patterns of normality and a collective sense of safety. Yet, post‐conflict reconstruction, particularly in historic cores, rarely considers former or newly formed footpaths, further misaligning future project agendas with context‐specific recovery needs. This article develops the “disruption assemblages” approach, a conceptual framework that captures the dynamic interplay of material, temporal, and human elements in conflict‐ridden contexts, to examine war’s impact on walkability. Using Aleppo’s historic core as a case study, it highlights the inseparable connection between the urban fabric’s sensory‐spatial characteristics and its social‐temporal layering of familiarity and generational presence. Qualitative methods—including historical analysis, sensory ethnography, and walking as a research tool—reveal how Aleppo’s historic core has metamorphosed into a landscape of complex survival practices, danger‐evasion tactics, and everyday resistance. These findings illuminate the contested spatio‐temporality and lived experiences of reclaiming rights to and within urban space, demonstrating how walkability is deterritorialized and reterritorialized in war‐torn landscapes and during sporadic (post‐)conflict reconstruction. Ultimately, this article argues for re‐centring walkability in (post‐)conflict healing and proposes the “attract a foot” approach, emphasizing the imperative of re‐enabling walking as a sociable and human‐centred recovery strategy
Biology · Built environment · Geography · Tracing · Walkability · Computer Science · Engineering · Middle East Politics and Society · Public Spaces through Art · Urban Design and Spatial Analysis · Ecology
Syria 2011–2013
Domicide
A New Philosophy of Society
Urbicide
The Notion of Place, Place Meaning and Identity in Urban Regeneration
Past, Present, and Future Perspectives on the Integration of AI Into Walkability Assessment Tools
Domicide
Architecture, Urban Space and War
Aleppo
Spaces and Institutional Logics in Post-Conflict Settings of Mitrovica
Therapeutic mobilities
The psychological wellbeing benefits of place engagement during walking in urban environments
The phenomenon of walking
What is walkability? The urban DMA
The City-Logic of Resistance
Belfast
Reconstructing space, re-creating memory
Revisiting walking as mobile place-making practice
On spaciocide and resistance
Interventions in walking methods in political geography
Post-Conflict reconstruction, forced migration & community engagement
The City as Assemblage
Sense and the city
(Re)calibrating heritage
| Unique citing works | 1 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 1 |
| Citation span | 2025 - 2025 (1) |
| Citation velocity | recent |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 1 |