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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
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    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. 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.
    3. 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.
    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.
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