Drawing on the larger project of the Shehr Network on Comparative Urban Landscapes, the articles in this issue seek to revisit conceptually and theoretically the question of marginality in the production of contemporary urban cartographies in the Middle East and … Continue reading “Introduction”
Issue: Issue 095 Urban Margins
Urban Margins: Envisioning the Contemporary Global South
Emergency Democracy and the "Governing Composite"
abdoumaliq simoneTaking two neighborhoods in Dakar and Douala, the article investigates the processes through which these localities attempt to strike a balance between multiplying the conceivable relations among people, materials, and talk and forging a provisional framework to keep things from … Continue reading “Emergency Democracy and the "Governing Composite"”
"City of Whores": Nationalism, Development, and Global Garment Workers in Sri Lanka
sandya hewamanneThe rapid urbanization and industrialization of Katunayake resulting from transnational production at the Free Trade Zone (FTZ) and related globalized sociocultural flows affected the lived experiences of citizens in this new urban space in varied ways. The vast majority of … Continue reading “"City of Whores": Nationalism, Development, and Global Garment Workers in Sri Lanka”
Urban Modernity on the Periphery: A New Middle Class Reinvents the Palestinian City
lisa tarakiThe Palestinian town of Ramallah, possibly on the lowest rung of urban hierarchies in the region, is a peripheral town trying to become a city on the fringes of the Arab world. Its nascent new middle class partakes enthusiastically in … Continue reading “Urban Modernity on the Periphery: A New Middle Class Reinvents the Palestinian City”
In the Ruins of Bahla: Reconstructed Forts and Crumbling Walls in an Omani Town
mandana e. limbertThis article examines the ruins of the former structures of rule in a medium-sized town in the Sultanate of Oman. It explores how people in Bahla relate to and perceive the ruins of forts, walls, and neighborhoods that had helped … Continue reading “In the Ruins of Bahla: Reconstructed Forts and Crumbling Walls in an Omani Town”
"Mardi Gras Geishas (Batters)," New Orleans
nic.sammond@utoronto.ca“Mardi Gras Geishas (Batters),” New Orleans. Nic Sammond, June 2007. Courtesy of the artist. Thanks to Blaine Kern’s Mardi Gras World.
The Gnat and the Sovereign
Allen FeldmanThis short essay interprets a narrative from the Talmud to explore Agamben’s concept of bare life and Benjamin’s concept of messianic violence.
With Ice in Their Ears
Allen FeldmanThis short essay uses a Serbian war crime in Sarajevo to discuss the mediatization of war.
Witchcraft
rosalind morrisWhat explains the social power of music in the United States today? What allows Americans to invoke it as the cause of antisocial violence, as well as of personal expressivity? This essay contemplates the peculiar American invention of a musical … Continue reading “Witchcraft”