Spaces of Abandonment: Genealogies, Lives and Critical Horizons

Leshem, N.

doi:10.1177/0263775816683189

Spaces of Abandonment: Genealogies, Lives and Critical Horizons

Leshem, N.

Authors

Dr Noam Leshem noam.leshem@durham.ac.uk
Associate Professor

Abstract

Abandonment has a long presence in Western cultural, philosophical and legal canon, though most contemporary critical debates focus on its sovereign and juridico-political functions. This article considers the concept of abandonment through its more nuanced and multidimensional appearances: at once a political technology and a material economy, a juridical category and a sphere of intimacy. Following the longer conceptual history of abandonment, from its Greco-Roman sources to the present, the article sheds light on abandonment as a systemic political technology, its evolution and significance in different social and political contexts. Drawing on notions of abandonment that remain outside Western intellectual corpus—primarily in early Jewish jurisprudence—this article seeks a more nuanced and expansive understanding of this concept. Closely reading a case documenting the fatal abandonment of one Palestinian man in 2008, the article highlights a myriad of agents, materialities, relations and infrastructures that join in the production and perpetuation of the abandoned present.

Citation

Leshem, N. (2017). Spaces of Abandonment: Genealogies, Lives and Critical Horizons. Environment and Planning D: Society and Space, 35(4), 620-636. https://doi.org/10.1177/0263775816683189

Journal Article Type	Article
Acceptance Date	Nov 15, 2016
Online Publication Date	Dec 11, 2016
Publication Date	Aug 1, 2017
Deposit Date	Nov 15, 2016
Publicly Available Date	Nov 15, 2016
Journal	Environment and Planning D: Society and Space
Print ISSN	0263-7758
Electronic ISSN	1472-3433
Publisher	SAGE Publications
Peer Reviewed	Peer Reviewed
Volume	35
Issue	4
Pages	620-636
DOI	https://doi.org/10.1177/0263775816683189

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Copyright Statement
Leshem, Noam (2017) 'Spaces of abandonment : genealogies, lives and critical horizons.', Environment and planning D : society and space., 35 (4). pp. 620-636. Copyright © 2016 The Author(s). Reprinted by permission of SAGE Publications.