Segregation, mobility and encounters in Jerusalem: The role of public transport infrastructure in connecting the ‘divided city’

Abstract

This paper assesses ways in which urban segregation is shaped and transformed by Jerusalem's public transport network, enhancing mobility and potential group encounters. We suggest that segregation should be understood as an issue of mobility and co-presence in public space, rather than the static residential-based segregation that continues to be a central focus of debate in urban studies. We explore public transport infrastructures, considering how their implementation reflects the variety of ways that transport can have impact: segmenting populations, linking populations and/or creating spaces for interaction or conflict between the city's Jewish Israeli and Arab Palestinian populations. Space syntax network analysis suggests that in the case of Jerusalem, access to public transport is multi-dimensional: as well as providing access to resources, it shapes opportunities for spatial mobility that may either overcome or reinforce area-based housing segregation. We discuss these opportunities in the light of Jerusalem's on-going ethno-national division in an-increasingly-fractured-urban-reality.

Contrasting Jerusalem: contested urbanism at the crossroads

“…Existing imbalances of political power are likely to intensify with the population trajectories of the Jewish ultra-orthodox population on the one hand and the Palestinian on the other. Nevertheless, it is hoped that given the abiding international interest in the city a shift in local political motivations will allow it to move on to new, more positive tracks that build on its long history of coexistence (Rokem and Vaughan 2017).…”

“…longer ignore expanding violence, disaster, and division. Urban environments across the planet are becoming hypersecuritised and yet insecure (Rokem 2017 et al). For anyone with interested in an in-depth account of the recent politics and planning changes in Jeruaslem I would warmly recommend to read the book.…”

Interventions in urban geopolitics

“…The geographies of cities are restructuring, frequently in unpredictable ways, with their urban populations coming together and becoming polarised within often-underexplored migration, segregation and mobility patterns (Rokem & Vaughan, 2017). The emerging 'urban geopolitical turn' (Rokem & Fregonese, this issue; Rokem & Boano, In press) has so far predominantly engaged with extreme urban combat, and the total breakdown and rapture of urban systems during conflict !Graham, 2004a!Graham, , 2010Weizman!…”

“…More Intervention in Urban Geopolitics, Political Geography Journal Pre-publication version (Accepted 2 nd April 2017) 7 than emphasizing a set of given qualities associated with the urban environment, segregation and mobility suggest ways to explore everyday movements with a geopolitical significance at the urban and local scale. In other words, while segregation distinguishes geographically between different groups, without mobility mixing of different groups cannot occur (Rokem & Vaughan, 2017). This enables us to delineate the contours of the city as a meaningful site to analyse mobility and borders between different groups, with more attention given to the 'planning politics nexus'; the relation between planning and politics, as a non-hierarchical set of interactions, negotiated within the specific historical, geographical, legal and cultural context (Rokem & Allegra, 2016).…”

“…Urban segregation should be viewed as more multifarious and complex, suggesting it is simultaneously a political, social, economic ethnic and racial artefact of an individual's potential mobility in the city. Segregation alone is not necessarily a problem and can be seen more positively as spatial congregation, but overcoming a combination of segregation and immobility is an urgent challenge in seeking spatial and social justice (Rokem & Vaughan, 2017).…”