Learning from Jerusalem
The way migrant communities are integrated, or segregated, within cities in the future may determine if a city functions successfully.
The Contested Urbanism Project has launched its presentation Learning from Jerusalem, an analysis of some of the main changes in Jerusalem’s 20th century spatial history. It overlays maps of municipal boundaries, the security barrier, and bus and light railway routes, as well as space syntax analysis of patterns of accessibility to assess how well the city’s various groups have the potential for interface around the city.
Jerusalem represents a rather exceptional case study because of its unique position as the global centre of the three largest monotheistic religions since biblical times. It is both a symbolic and tangible focal point in the Israeli Palestinian conflict and competing religious and political narratives have affected the city’s growth.
The presentation marks the midpoint of Contested Urbanism’s research project led by Dr Jonathan Rokem with Professor Laura Vaughan of The Bartlett School of Architecture’s Space Syntax Lab. The research investigates the role of political, spatial and social factors in shaping urban segregation in Sweden and Israel to compare ethnic diversity in contrasting political and welfare settings. Dr Rokem says: “We’re using Jerusalem as an inspiration for how to deal with planning in other cities undergoing social, spatial and political contestation, to expand our understanding of how different mechanisms and policies affect different communities.”
The aim now is to find further funding to look at how European cities – particularly Athens, Berlin and Stockholm – are affected by Syrian migration and how communities become segregated or successfully integrated over time.
Main image credit: Claude Villetaneuse
Infographic
Download 'Critical Mass', our Annual Review data breakdown