Spacing Palestine through the home

Harker, C.

doi:10.1111/j.1475-5661.2009.00352.x

Spacing Palestine through the home

Harker, C.

Authors

C. Harker

Abstract

This paper explores connections that can be made between houses, homes and violence in Palestine, and representational consequences of making such connections. Drawing on ethnographic field research in Birzeit, I put recent work on critical geographies of home into conversation with geographies and geopolitics of Palestine. I criticise the tendency to represent Palestinian geographies almost entirely through the lens of the Israeli Occupation. While such studies have a great deal of value both academically and politically, this paper augments such work by developing a different focus and a different representational approach. I use detailed ethnographic vignettes and interviews to engage with the domestic practices that make particular Birzeiti homes. These intimate domestic encounters underpin my argument that there is a need for more work that apprehends Palestinian geographies as complexities that bear a relation to, but are not fully determined by, the Israeli Occupation.

Citation

Harker, C. (2009). Spacing Palestine through the home. Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers, 34(3), 320-332. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1475-5661.2009.00352.x

Journal Article Type	Article
Publication Date	Jul 1, 2009
Deposit Date	Nov 6, 2009
Publicly Available Date	Jul 12, 2010
Journal	Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers
Print ISSN	0020-2754
Electronic ISSN	1475-5661
Publisher	Wiley
Peer Reviewed	Peer Reviewed
Volume	34
Issue	3
Pages	320-332
DOI	https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1475-5661.2009.00352.x
Keywords	Palestine, Home, House, Demolitions, Occupation, Representation.