IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/urbstu/v60y2023i14p2901-2918.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Comparative urbanism for hope and healing: Urbicide and the dilemmas of reconstruction in post-war Syria and Poland

Author

Listed:
  • Joanna Kusiak

    (University of Cambridge, UK
    Kozminski University, Poland)

  • Ammar Azzouz

    (University of Oxford, UK)

Abstract

This paper expands the repertoire of comparative urbanism by putting forward a method of ‘hopeful comparison’, in which we explore an asynchronous comparison between post-war Poland and Syria. Similar to the way that Polish architects used urban design as a ‘practice of hope’ during the Second World War, contemporary Syrian architects are now drafting reconstruction plans even if their implementation does not seem politically possible. Yet what role can an ethical, affective stance such as hope play in the methodology of comparative urbanism? In our comparative strategy the role of radical hope is threefold. First, it creates the comparative connection between two cities destroyed by urbicide, thus countering the destructive connectivities of war and, in case of Syria, capitalism, and foregrounding resilience and human connection (which also opens up the potential of healing). Second, radical hope provides a temporal reorientation of knowledge, redirecting the analysis from the traumatic past towards an open future. Third, in this way a hopeful comparison becomes a practical tool for thinking through concrete ethical and political dilemmas concerning reconstruction and property regimes. How to think about reconstruction when the conflict is still ongoing, and, if the property system is now weaponised as part of the conflict, how to avoid inadvertently reproducing this violence in the process of property restitution and reconstruction.

Suggested Citation

  • Joanna Kusiak & Ammar Azzouz, 2023. "Comparative urbanism for hope and healing: Urbicide and the dilemmas of reconstruction in post-war Syria and Poland," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 60(14), pages 2901-2918, November.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:urbstu:v:60:y:2023:i:14:p:2901-2918
    DOI: 10.1177/00420980231163978
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/00420980231163978
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/00420980231163978?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Louise Crabtree, 2014. "Community Land Trusts and Indigenous Housing in Australia-Exploring Difference-Based Policy and Appropriate Housing," Housing Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 29(6), pages 743-759, September.
    2. Joanna Kusiak, 2019. "Legal Technologies of Primitive Accumulation: Judicial Robbery and Dispossession‐by‐Restitution in Warsaw," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 43(4), pages 649-665, July.
    3. Christine Hentschel, 2015. "Postcolonializing Berlin and The Fabrication of The Urban," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 39(1), pages 79-91, January.
    4. Sahera Bleibleh & Michael Vicente Perez & Thaira Bleibleh, 2019. "Palestinian refugee women and the Jenin refugee camp: Reflections on urbicide and the dilemmas of home in exile," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 56(14), pages 2897-2916, November.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Ross Beveridge & Philippe Koch, 2021. "Contesting austerity, de-centring the state: Anti-politics and the political horizon of the urban," Environment and Planning C, , vol. 39(3), pages 451-468, May.
    2. Gunvor Jónsson & Maria Lindmäe & Joanna Menet & Emil Van Eck, 2023. "‘ALL EYES ON ME’: The (In)Formal Barriers to Market Trade in Europe," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 47(2), pages 221-236, March.
    3. Anke Schwarz & Monika Streule, 2016. "A Transposition of Territory: Decolonized Perspectives in Current Urban Research," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 40(5), pages 1000-1016, September.
    4. Stephanie Wakefield, 2022. "Critical urban theory in the Anthropocene," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 59(5), pages 917-936, April.
    5. Hillary Angelo, 2017. "From the city lens toward urbanisation as a way of seeing: Country/city binaries on an urbanising planet," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 54(1), pages 158-178, January.
    6. Wood, Astrid & Kębłowski, Wojciech & Tuvikene, Tauri, 2020. "Decolonial approaches to urban transport geographies: Introduction to the special issue," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 88(C).
    7. Ioanna P. Korfiati, 2022. "LANDSCAPES ON HOLD: Opening up Monopoly Rent Gaps on Crete's Cape Sidero," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 46(4), pages 576-593, July.
    8. Sophie Gonick, 2016. "From Occupation to Recuperation: Property, Politics and Provincialization in Contemporary Madrid," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 40(4), pages 833-848, July.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:urbstu:v:60:y:2023:i:14:p:2901-2918. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.gla.ac.uk/departments/urbanstudiesjournal .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.