Hybrid Urbanism: On the Identity Discourse and the Built Environment

271 Pages·2001·20.815 MB·English

by  Nezar AlSayyad

Hybrid Urbanism
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Hybrid Urbanism
On the Identity Discourse and the
Built Environment
Edited by Nezar AlSayyad
PRAEGER Westport, Connecticut
London
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Hybrid urbanism : on the identity discourse and the built environment / edited by Nezar
AlSayyad.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-275-96612-7 (alk. paper)
1. Cities and towns. 2. Group identity. I. AlSayyad, Nezar.
HT119.H93 2001
307.76—dc21 00-044131
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data is available.
Copyright © 2001 by Nezar AlSayyad
All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be
reproduced, by any process or technique, without the
express written consent of the publisher.
Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 00-044131
ISBN: 0-275-96612-7
First published in 2001
Praeger Publishers, 88 Post Road West, Westport, CT 06881
An imprint of Greenwood Publishing Group, Inc.
www.praeger.com
Printed in the United States of America
The paper used in this book complies with the
Permanent Paper Standard issued by the National
Information Standards Organization (Z39.48-1984).
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 21
Every reasonable effort has been made to trace the owners of copyright materials in this book,
but in some instances this has proven impossible. The editor and publisher will be glad to receive
information leading to more complete acknowledgments in subsequent printings of the book
and in the meantime extend their apologies for any omissions.
To the peoples of hybrid persuasions.
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CONTENTS
PrefaceT ix
Prologue
Hybrid Culture/Hybrid Urbanism: Pandora's Box
of the "Third Place"
Nezar AlSayyad 1
Part I: Identity and Tradition in Premodern Urbanism
1. Cross-Cultural Currents: Swahili Urbanism in the
Late Middle Ages
Thomas R. Gensheimer 21
2. Orchestrating Difference, Performing Identity:
Urban Space and Public Rituals in Nineteenth-Century Izmir
Sibel Zandi-Sayek 42
3. California Chinatowns: Built Environments Expressing
the Hybridized Culture of Chinese Americans
67
Christopher L. Tip
4. A Colonial Portrait of Jerusalem: British Architecture in
Mandate-Era Palestine
Ron Fuchs and Gilbert Herber 83
viii CONTENTS
Part II: Modernity, Globalization and Urban Form
5. Stages of Globalization in the African Context: Mombasa
AliA.Mazrui 111
6. Rethinking Heritage Politics in a Global Context:
A View from Istanbul
AyferBartu 131
7. Learning from Chinatown: The Search for a Modern
Chinese Architectural Identity, 1911-1998
Anne-Marie Broudehoux 156
8. Building Culture in Divided Berlin:
Globalization and the Cold War
Greg Castillo 181
9. Porous Boundaries: Fence Patterns and Mexican-American
Identity in San Antonio, Texas
Robert Mugerauer 206
Epilogue
"The Reverse Side of the World": Identity, Space, and Power
Ananya Roy 229
Selected Bibliography 247
Index 249
About the Contributors 257
PREFACE
The idea behind this book goes back to 1996 and a discussion I had with two of
my Ph.D. students. The students were concerned that, as prospective urban his
torians working on Third World topics, they were unlikely to get the jobs they
desired in the United States. They were also concerned that working on cities and
places that were "hybrid" and principally constituted of people of different eth
nicities, cultures and religions was going to further limit their chances. I was espe
cially puzzled that two relatively bright students could feel this sense of insecurity,
and I could only respond by reminding them that the choice and pursuit of a
research topic has always been about the politics of position. I recognized that,
like the environments and the peoples they elected to study, these students were
struggling with their scholarly identities. It was as if they wanted to have their cake
and eat it too. They desired the respect and security they thought would be
afforded scholars working on First World environments within the confines of
such established disciplines as architectural history or material-culture studies, and
at the same time, they wanted the attention that would come from being creative
intellectuals taking on new topics and pursuing them in innovative ways in uncon
ventional sites. Simultaneously, they wanted "sameness" and "difference." It was
this encounter that prompted me to think about the subject of hybrid urbanism,
for I realized that what these students were seeking was precisely what the people
who lived in the hybrid places they studied seem to have achieved.
Hybridity is a very complex notion. At its most basic level, it has meant the
interbreeding or mixing of different peoples, cultures and societies. In the last
few years many good books have been authored and edited on hybridity and the
concept of a "third space." However, few of these have attempted to ground
themselves in the concrete realities of the physical environment: in neighbor
hoods, housing projects, urban squares, and city streets. This is the added
dimension this volume hopes to provide. Anchoring their work in specific case