Description:
- Aims to foster a new understanding of violence beyond that of a meaningless and destructive social and political act, countering notions of a violent Middle East.
- Explores processes sparked by the transition from empires to the formation of nation states, and the resulting changes in cityscapes throughout the region.
Brief description:
Nora Lafi is researcher at Zentrum Moderner Orient and is a historian of the Ottoman Empire with a focus on Urban Studies. She is coeditor of The City in the Ottoman Empire: Migration and the Making of Urban Modernity (Routledge, 2010).
Review Quotes:
"The book is a fascinating enrichment for the historically interested readers who are keen to learn more about the phenomenon of violence in urban spaces. The historical background invites to reconsider contemporary conflicts." - DAVO
"...the spatial approach of the studies in this volume provides a framework for understanding recent events. For students and researchers examining street politics and urban conflict, in the Middle East or beyond, Urban Violence in the Middle East shows how macro level spatial context can be used to develop deeper and more nuanced understanding of micro level violence and political contestation." - Middle East Media and Book Reviews Online
"This is a very remarkable collection of chapters... The totality is a lively read, exhibiting an almost universal familiarity with and appreciation of the literature." - Peter Sluglett, National University of Singapore
"...the book is timely, it is topical and useful for a more historically grounded understanding of the urban unrest in the Middle East during the last years up to the present." - Christoph Herzog, University of Bamberg