Political Geography: Middle East / Topic: Resistance

Author:: Eray Alim
Publication Date:: 06-2020
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: Turkish Journal of Middle Eastern Studies
Institution:: Turkish Journal of Middle Eastern Studies
Abstract:: This manuscript aims to assess Palestinian street art’s effectiveness as a resistance tool and political instrument in the struggle waged against Israel. It concludes by employing Bourdieu’s concept of symbolic power that Palestinian street art is an effective instrument on account of its ability to instill in Palestinian collective consciousness as a sense of resistance. By utilizing Mouffe’s definition of politics as being a constant struggle between hegemonic and counter hegemonic forces, this work also holds that street art serves Palestinians as a means to reaffirm their political existence and develop an alternative political imagination against the Israeli-imposed reality. This manuscript also broaches the oft-discussed issue of visual diversity in Palestinian street art scene and concludes that eclectic content may serve as a contributive force, if the counter hegemonic character of Palestinian street art is adhered to.
Topic:: Arts, Culture, Hegemony, and Resistance
Political Geography:: Middle East, Israel, and Palestine

Author:: Bénédicte Florin
Publication Date:: 03-2016
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: Cultures & Conflits
Institution:: Cultures & Conflits
Abstract:: This paper is based on interviews held with Istanbul waste collectors who cross the city to collect recyclable waste. Bound in some sense to garbage, these waste collectors are cast to the edges of the city and to the margins of society. Their working and living spaces are both degraded and threatened by encroaching urban renovation projects and real-estate developments; associated waste-management reforms do not recognize the work of waste collectors as legitimate and therefore exclude these “poor”, “dirty, and “archaic” waste collectors. Through an analysis of small and discrete practices of resistance of waste collectors, namely by continuing to collect waste despite its illegal status as well as through mobilization efforts to become organized as “waste workers”, this article argues that far from being passive, these waste collectors resist against exclusion and elaborate a justificatory discourse to defend their role in society.
Topic:: Class, Sanitation, Cities, Waste, and Resistance
Political Geography:: Turkey, Middle East, and Istanbul

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