Introduction: uneasy neighbours: proximity, sociability and difference in the colonial city, c. 1870–1940

Ofrath, Avner und Aselmeyer, Norman (2026): Introduction: uneasy neighbours: proximity, sociability and difference in the colonial city, c. 1870–1940. In: Urban History, Vol. 53, No. 1: pp. 32-40

Abstract

This introductory essay establishes the site of the neighbourhood and the social fact of urban proximity as crucial, conflicted and volatile conditions of colonial society. We show that the colonial neighbourhood was a highly contested space where diverse populations, stark inequalities and asymmetric power distributions played out in the most palpable manner. At the same time, it also emerged as an incubator of sociability, solidarity and protest across communal lines. The constant tension between physical proximity and profound inequality defined much of the social dynamics in the colonial city, making neighbours and neighbourhoods a most promising terrain of enquiry.

• Item Type: Journal article
• Faculties: Cultural Studies > Department of Ancient and Modern Cultures > Institute for Near and Middle Eastern Studies; Cultural Studies > Department of Ancient and Modern Cultures > Institute for Near and Middle Eastern Studies > Jewish studies
• Subjects: 900 History and geography > 900 Geschichte
• ISSN: 1469-8706
• Language: English