Hybrid Urban Modernities

ended

The theory of urban space in cities widely referred to as Middle East-North African has been grounded on a spatial dichotomy shaped by the binary opposition of tradition and modernity. This attitude has dominated urban studies, design practices, and policymaking. Literature which challenges this domination has been largely marginalised. To dislocate this marginalised discourse into the core of the global urban theory debate, this project uses the concept of space ordering and its two constituent themes of privacy and interiority to articulate an alternative, temporally and locally hybrid, theory of urban space which builds on the empirical evidence from the actual urban life in two cities of Casablanca and Tehran. The research employs a methodological bricolage approach to address its interdisciplinary nature. It utilises critical discourse analysis to investigate global debates on the spatial dichotomy of interior/exterior-public/private, and de-construct their manifestation in the (re)production of urban space in two case study cities of Tehran and Casablanca. It then develops a place-specific framework for empirical study of space ordering in two realms of materiality and everyday practices using a wide range of advanced methods. This framework will be applied to four case study neighbourhoods through intensive empirical fieldwork to explore whether and to what extent historical spatial logics are materially and socio-culturally (re)produced and practiced in the contemporary urban space. The findings will be synthesised to formulate an alternative theory of space ordering for the MENA cities which is hybrid, place-specific, and empirically-informed. Policy and planning implications will be incorporated into two Policy Handbook documents for Tehran and Casablanca. Finally, using recent achievements in digital ethnography, the project will create a visual commentary on the indigenous modernities and local narratives of space ordering in case study cities.