“Place Making” and “Place Attachment” as Key Concepts in Understanding and Confronting Contemporary Urban Evictions: The Case of Givat-Amal, Tel Aviv

Abstract

This article expands on the usability of the concepts of “place making” and “place attachment” as recently developed in urban studies research in the context of housing insecurity of marginalized communities in today’s neo-liberal city. Particularly, against the growing threat of urban evictions, the article utilizes a transdisciplinary approach, showing the relevance of both concepts for (a) a better understanding of bottom-up processes of spatial production and attempts to create a sense of place on the part of such communities, and (b) offering an innovative legal strategy for doing justice to these communities in terms of their compensation rights, especially where a title to land has not been registered on a private basis. These issues are critically examined on the site-related case of the Givat-Amal quarter in Tel Aviv, Israel. This district is now under actual final threat of forced evictions following seven conflicted decades with the state, municipal authorities and private entrepreneurs. Our transdisciplinary study is based on qualitative methodologies in human geography such as fieldwork, visual evidence, and interviews, with a glimpse into philosophy. It is equally based on revisiting “traditional” legal property rights through the lens of post-liberal human rights analysis. The argument can apply to many situations of forced evictions across Africa, Latin America, and the West itself.

Problematizing urban microtoponyms

“…Currently, there are several often overlapping thematic streams in urban microtoponymy, which can be distilled from the variety of multidisciplinary literature: The different forms of co‐existence and interactions between the official and unofficial urban place names systems (Bigon & Ben Arrous, 2022; Butnaru, 2012; Giraut, 2020; Light & Young, 2014; Mori, 2007; Njoh, 2010; Yeoh, 1992, 2017). The organization of urban symbolic landscapes and placemaking functions of microtoponyms (Basik, 2023b; Bigon et al., 2022; Wideman & Masuda, 2018). Cultural and political conflicts between the authorities and locals (Babb, 2001; Basik, 2023a; Brocket, 2021; Madden, 2018; Rose‐Redwood, 2008a; Shoval, 2013).…”

“…11–12, 1958; see also Magner, 1958), it was used in regional onomastic studies (among many others, Ahmanova, 1967; Mikrotoponymiya, 1964; Nikonov, 1965; Šmilauer, 1963). Consequently, defined as a “name referring to smaller objects like fields, pastures, fences, stones, marshes, bogs, ditches, etc., and in general used locally by only a limited group of people” (The International Council of Onomastic Science, n. d.), “the name of a natural or (less commonly) manmade object used by a local community who lives near it” (Room, 1996, p. 63) or, “the name of smaller places known to a smaller set of people (usually locals)” (Perono Cacciafoco & Cavallaro, 2023, p. 4), the term microtoponym is now generally accepted among the linguists‐onomasticians and other social scientists worldwide (among others, Berezkina, 2014; Bigon et al., 2022; Caffarelli, 2022; Cott, 2015; David, 2016; Gałkowski & Gliwa, 2014; Mrózek, 1990; Nash, 2016, 2017; Perono Cacciafoco & Cavallaro, 2017; Podolskaya, 1988; Racca, 2019; Siegfried, 2018; Tent, 2014, 2015; Tort‐Donada, 2015). 1…”

“…The organization of urban symbolic landscapes and placemaking functions of microtoponyms (Basik, 2023b; Bigon et al., 2022; Wideman & Masuda, 2018).…”

“…Additionally, some other forms of protest where vernacular place names emerged are related to contested decisions of the authorities or the struggles of the urban dwellers with corporate business over land, such as the violent evictions in Tel‐Aviv were the reason for the creation of “The Founders' Square,” the vernacular microtoponymic symbol of the inhabitants' rights to the land (Bigon et al., 2022). As contemporary cities are “inescapably patterned by struggles over space and place” (Madden, 2018, p. 1611) and the various forms of anti‐governmental mass mobilizations have become more frequent worldwide (Onuch & Sasse, 2023), microtoponymy of urban protest has an opportunity to be one of the thriving themes of critical toponymic research.…”

The resolution of the transition conflict from tourism to mining in Pangkal Niur Village through the strengthening of social capital

“…Conflict management and economic transition in Pangkal Niur Village are key elements in balancing economic interests and environmental preservation (Thebe 2018, Bigon et al 2021, Zafar 2022). This research reveals more in-depth conflict management strategies adopted by the community to uphold the value of tourism and achieve sustainable economic well-being.…”