God, globalization, and geopolitics: On West Jerusalem's gated communities

Haim Yacobi

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

30 Scopus citations

Abstract

Over the last two decades West Jerusalem's city centre has undergone widescale privatization of space which is expressed, for instance, in the extensive construction of gated-community housing compounds. This is a global process which can be seen in many cities where neoliberal policies are implemented, resulting in the expansion of the elite's private capital on the one hand and the weakening of the welfare state as part of globalization processes on the other. However, this explanation is not suffi cient when analyzing the privatization of space in West Jerusalem's city centre, which is spatially and politically part of the ongoing Israeli-Arab confl ict. In other words, my argument is that the case of West Jerusalem illustrates a combination both of local ethnosecurity discourses and of global neoliberal urban policies which do not contradict each other, but rather are complementary.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)2705-2720
Number of pages16
JournalEnvironment and Planning A
Volume44
Issue number11
DOIs
StatePublished - 13 Dec 2012

Keywords

  • Colonialism
  • Gated communities
  • Geopolitics
  • Jerusalem
  • Urban space

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Geography, Planning and Development
  • Environmental Science (miscellaneous)

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'God, globalization, and geopolitics: On West Jerusalem's gated communities'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this