Depuis trois ans, Jadaliyya s’est imposé comme un site de référence sur l’actualité du monde arabe (et de sa marge turque). Mêlant journalisme d’investigation, textes de diffusion de travaux scientifiques, prises de position politiques et sociales, il émane des interactions d’un collectif divers largement composé de personnes originaires de la région ou y vivant. Au départ écrit en anglais et arabe, il s’ouvre aujourd’hui à d’autres langues, notamment le turc et le français.
Je suis heureux d’annoncer le lancement, ce 30 septembre, d’une page Cities, animée par une équipe éditoriale qui se compose de Mona Harb (rédactrice en chef), Hiba Bou Akar, Farah Nakib,Farha Ghannam, Ozan Karaman et moi-même. Voici les objectifs de la page.

Introduction Statement to Jad Cities Page

Cities are important economic, social, political, and cultural centers. They are the home of more than half of the globe’s population and urban centers continue to grow rapidly in different parts of the world. Despite the central role of cities in a largely urban world, various debates and studies referring to urban space still use it as a backdrop to social, political and economic action. The Cities Page seeks to promote critical understandings and investigations of urban life and space, beyond the dominant formal and physical narration on cities.

The Cities Page focuses on a critical understanding of the Middle East region at a crucial juncture, when many cities in the region have become the main spaces for massive uprisings to demand freedom, social justice, and political participation. While many capital cities, like Cairo, were the focus of such mass uprisings, other capital cities, like Damascus, remained to some extent marginal to their development.  How and why does urban space contribute to public action and social movements? What is the relationship between power, space, and resistance? How do different groups utilize space to mobilize and facilitate collective action? Which forces that shape space (physical and technological, as well as social, historical, political and economic) are combined to guide this action? More broadly, how are cities shaped by specific historical, national policies and global forces? How are different inequalities constituted by urban life and how do they reconstitute the city? How do the ordinary practitioners of the city negotiate, navigate, appropriate, resist, and transform urban forms?

In order to develop a deep understanding of these processes, there is a need to produce scholarship, initiate discussions, and engage in debates that situate ongoing struggles for change and justice in cities, between cities, suburbs, and rural areas, and amongst cities in this region within a larger mapping of processes of socio-spatial marginalization and urban inequalities. The Cities Page brings works from different fields that deepen our understanding of the social production of diverse urban geographies and the contestation around them. It aims to consolidate an interdisciplinary and integrated approach to reading and writing about space and cities, incorporating historical, social, cultural, political, legal, economic and technological dimensions.

The Cities Page also seeks to be a bridge between scholars, practitioners and citizens from the Maghreb to the Gulf and the Machreq, as well as across the Arab diaspora. Therefore, it welcomes contributions in Arabic, English, French or Turkish, acknowledging the legitimacy of these diverse languages and preventing any domination or framing by one hegemonic language.

The goal is to provide an open platform for critical reflections on cities and space, and for thinking interventions that enable multi-faceted practices and experiences. The Cities Page invites conceptual and methodological innovative studies of the city, urban life, spatial practices and planning interventions, as well as more applied pieces intended to foster debate. It welcomes contributions in various formats, languages, and on various urban geographies and histories (see Submission Guidelines for more information).

Nous encourageons fortement les contributions, qui peuvent prendre la forme d’articles d’analyse, de tribunes, d’entretiens, de photos commentées, de comptes rendus (de livres ou de films) ou encore d’annonces d’ouvrage (selon le format NEWTON: New text in town). Le français est BIENVENU ! Vous observerez d’ailleurs la mention d’un certain nombre de références francophones dans les colonnes de ressources de la page. Et cela a vocation à s’étendre. N’hésitez pas à me contacter pour toute proposition.
Voici les articles lancés aujourd’hui, sachant que la page est déjà très riches de nombreuses contributions antérieures en lien avec la ville et les luttes et mobilisations qui s’y déroulent et la prennent pour enjeu.

Eric Verdeil

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