Divided we rise

Politics, architecture and vertical cityscapes at opposite ends of Jerusalem

Bibliographic Data

ID8963371
AuthorsGillad Rosen (0000-0001-7514-1981, Department of Geography The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Mount Scopus Jerusalem 91905 Israel, corresponding author), Igal Charney (0000-0002-8821-8711, Department of Geography and Environmental Studies University of Haifa Haifa 31905 Israel, corresponding author)
Year2016
Volume41
Issue2
Pages163-174
Publication date2016-03-15
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueTransactions of the Institute of British Geographers (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0020-2754 • E-ISSN: 1475-5661
PublisherWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1111/tran.12112
OpenAlexW2298264054
LanguageEN
Citations received23
References cited79

This paper explores how planning, politics and architecture work together to socially produce new vertical cityscapes. Our contention is that the inception and development of high‐rises are interlocked into the narrations of cities, reflecting cultural values and social cleavages, political interests and planning agendas, symbolic connotations and everyday life experiences. By using a mixed‐method approach, which includes the analysis of official documents and interviews with decisionmakers, planners and observers, we examine two trajectories of tall‐building development at opposite ends of Jerusalem. In Israeli West Jerusalem, the development of high‐rises is part of a neo‐liberal growth package that seeks to stimulate economic activity, rebrand the city and increase the city's competiveness at national and global scales while evading highly contentious religious‐cultural cleavages. At the other end of the city, the construction of tall buildings in grey spaces symbolically represents a Palestinian revolt against Israeli restrictive planning and development policies, but also addresses day‐to‐day needs and changing preferences of the Palestinian population. Our analysis uses verticality as a representation of social relations demonstrating manipulations of power and legitimacy. In Jerusalem, planning and development of ordinary high‐rises next to recently completed icons, the Bridge of Strings and the Separation Wall, epitomises a dialogue that unmistakably promotes political agendas and produces symbolic meanings. This dialogue can either support the original values and aims of urban icons or challenge them

Aesthetics · Art · Bridge (graph theory · Civil engineering · Legitimacy · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Population · Power (physics · Representation (politics · Sociology · Urban planning · Visual arts · Architecture · Engineering · Law · Urban and Rural Development Challenges · Urban Planning and Governance · Water Governance and Infrastructure

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