Conflict in Cities -Briefing Paper 9- 'Coping with Conflict'

Policy makers must understand ethno-national conflicts and their management or resolution in terms of processes that span urban, regional, national and international levels. Trying to find or implement a solution at only one level may be severely limiting.

The Sage Handbook of Urban Sociology: New approaches to the twenty-first century city, 2018

Despite the optimism of early 2011, by autumn the Egyptian Arab Spring had turned darker. For the revolutionaries based in Cairo's Tahrir Square (Figure 20.1), the reverie of the early months had given way to frequent violence and the realisation that this was to be a protracted struggle not easily won. In the acclaimed film 'The Square' (Al-Maidan 2013), which documents the events of the Egyptian Revolution through the eyes of activists from 2011 to 2013, one of the key figures states there is now 'war in the Square, not revolution'. It is a critical distinction not all Cairenes would have perceived or been sympathetic to, having believed that war was evident right from the early days. The activists had become attached to the Square and, through it, believed not only that they were able to feel the pulse of the city, but that 'whoever holds the Square holds power'. 2 Tahrir Square was fought over and occupied by the revolutionaries, the military and the Muslim Brotherhood with periods of heavy violence and relative quiet, all within the complexity of a three-way struggle to preserve or gain power. Filmed by Jehane Noujaim and her crew and some of the activists, 'The Square' depicts the close interfaces within the needs of everyday life, waging of political activism, and hostile clashes with the authorities. The setting of Tahrir Square and its surrounding streets depicts an urban backdrop so common and familiar that it evokes a sense that this violence could arrive on the doorstep of almost any city. During the two years portrayed in the film, Cairo slips repeatedly in and out of violence. Everyday locations and objects are conscripted into places of mass demonstration and protest, barricades, strategic viewing points, discussion groups, places of prayer, soup kitchens, first aid stations, hospitals. Alliances and associations are formed and broken. Yet to a good extent, urban life-working, meeting, shopping, being at home, being in the city-goes on in all of its expected and quotidian ways. Conflict was integral to the revolution and today the Square retains the memory and symbolic associations that represent dissatisfaction with the country's leadership and the

Peacebuilding , 2023

This special issue explores geographies of peace in violently contested cities – cities where the socio-political order is contested by actors who use violence and repression to either challenge or reinforce the prevailing distribution of power and political, economic, and social control. The articles within the special issue theorise and explore where, when, how, and why urban conflicts manifest themselves in the context of contested cities. Together, they also uncover strategies and mechanisms that can break dynamics of violence and repression, lead to urban coexistence, and generate peaceful relations in cities, grounding their analyses in rich case studies of different violently contested cities. The special issue thereby advances the research front on violently contested cities by studying their previously underexplored constructive potential. Bringing together different disciplinary perspectives, the special issue speaks to broader issues of conflicted and conflict-driven urbanisation, political violence in cities, and wider processes of urban change.

2000

Cities have always been arenas of social and sym- bolic conflict. As places of encounter between dif- ferent classes, ethnic groups, and lifestyles, cities play the role of powerful integrators; yet on the other hand urban contexts are the ideal setting for marginalization and violence. The struggle over control of urban spaces is an ambivalent mode of sociation: while producing

Manchest er M13 9PL UK www.urbant ippingpoint .or g 1 1 . I n t r od u ct ion This con cept ual paper pr ovides a back gr ound docum ent for t he r esear ch pr oj ect on 'Underst anding t he Tipping Point s of Urban Conflict ' ( UTP) . I t s obj ect ive is t w ofold: first , t o briefly out line t he obj ect ives of t he proj ect ; and second, t o elaborat e on t he concept ual fram ew ork underpinning t he r esear ch. The proj ect is gr ounded in r ecent debat es r elat ing t o conflict and violence, arguing t hat w hile cit ies are inherent ly conflict ual spaces, t his conflict is generally m anaged m or e or less peacefully t hrough a range of social, cult ural and polit ical m echanism s. At t he sam e t im e t he reasons as t o w hy and w hen conflict t ips ov er int o chr onic, gen eralised or ov ert violence in som e cities and not in ot her s are poorly under st ood. Globally increasing levels of violence in cit ies, w het h er based on endem ic gang, crim e or drug-relat ed violence, gender-based at t ack s, et hnic st rife, t er r orism , or out right w arfare, m ak e t his a crit ical issue t o consider, part icularly as it is widely recognised t hat violence has im plicat ions not only for count ry and m et ropolit an level econom ic dev elopm ent , but also for t he livelihoods and w ell-being of t hose poor households and com m unit ies who are oft en at t he front line of urban conflict . Prevent ing and reducing violence is t herefore a key priorit y t o be t aken int o account in designing povert y reduct ion init iat ives and social prot ect ion m easures for t he poor.

2000

This paper seeks to understand the dynamics of post-conflict/post-major political transition violence in cities. It examines the transformation of violence in these cities from violence associated with protracted warfare and prolonged civil strife into new forms. The paper argues that post-conflict societies in general and cities in particular do not move from conflict and war into peace and normality in

Urbanization and Development, 2010

Cities generally … comprise a motley of peoples and cultures, of highly differentiated modes of life between which there often is only the faintest communication, the greatest indifference, … occasionally bitter strife, but always the sharpest contrast. (Wirth 1938: 20) As the world moves towards its so-called urban 'tipping point', urbanization in the global South has increasingly come to be portrayed as the portent of a dystopian future characterized by ever-mounting levels of anarchy and brutality. The association between cities, violence, and disorder is not new, however. In a classic article on…/

International Development Planning Review, 2014

Introduction to the Special Issue: Insurgencies, social media and the public city in Asia The increasing role of cyberspace in recent urban insurgencies calls for urban scholars to rethink notions of spatialities, public space and the public sphere. However, social movements in cyberspace cannot be the ends of insurgent actions. Hopes for reclaiming public space extend beyond demonstrations and mobilisations to include rebuilding a public city with long-term social impacts. Three themes that emerged in the midst of new media proliferation and Asia's rapid urbanisation include (1) corporatisation of urban space, (2) social media and the city and (3) insurgencies and the public city. Along these three themes, this Special Issue proposes three main issues for a research agenda aimed at analysing urban insurgencies: (1) the relationship between the power of digital media in insurgent mobilisation and the physical spaces of the city, (2) the materialisation of resistance movements in cyberspace and on the ground in the form of an authentic public city and (3) recognition of modest forms of change as results of everyday insurgencies.

The rising pressures of urbanization in fragile and conflict-affected countries have increased concerns about the vulnerability of cities to armed threats. Changes in the character of armed conflict during the twenty-first century and its effects on cities in the developing world have exposed gaps in the planning and practice of peace and security, which retain a " nation-State bias " that circumvents local perspectives and agencies. Whereas full-scale use of military power in cities remains as destructive today as it has ever been, international organizations such as the United Nations have called for changed approaches to State tactics in urban areas. Mechanisms designed to prevent conflict or to help countries transition back to peace are particularly key if massive human and economic damages are to be avoided in a world of increasingly dense cities. Another key concern is the vulnerability of developing-world cities to low-intensity, if protracted, forms of violence by non-State actors, particularly in post-conflict contexts.

Materialitäten, 2006