Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin - Urban Sociology

Dr. Nir Cohen at Think and Drink Colloquium

  • When Jun 04, 2018 from 06:00 to 09:00
  • Where Universitätsstraße 3b; 10117 Berlin
  • Attendees Nir Cohen Talja Blokland
  • iCal

Institut für Sozialwissenschaften
Universitätsstraße 3b

6pm Room 002 (Ground Floor)

Think and Drink Colloquium is a collaborative project of
--> Georg Simmel Center for Metropolitan Studies // HU
--> Urban and Regional Sociology // HU

It is open to anyone interested in Urban Studies - feel free to join!

 

Nir Cohen, Bar-Ilan University

'Do they even care'? The micro-politics of urban empathy in Tel Aviv

Enmity in on the rise in Israeli cities. Hostile, hate-filled exchanges are visible between distinct socio-political groups across the country. Skirmishes between orthodox and seculars over the closure of businesses on the Jewish day of rest, leftists and rightists over the deportation of African migrants, and lower and middle classes over the magnitude of urban renewal projects dot its contemporary urban landscape. Scholars have often employed a justice-oriented framework to account for these clashes, explaining their unfolding against the backdrop of dwindling rights for socio-physical goods and services – or the threat thereof – perceived by either group, or both.
In this talk, I set to critique the rigorous centering on material rights as a leading approach for explaining urban antagonism in Israel. Employing an ethics of care paradigm, I suggest instead that animosity is frequently induced by the perception of marginalized groups that powerful segments are unwilling (or unable) to take their perspective. Urban resentment is further exacerbated when the perceived misidentification of dominant groups is interpreted within an 'elitist' discourse of cosmopolitan values, like environmentalism or human rights.
Using insights from three case studies in the Tel Aviv metro area, my talk explores the micro-politics of urban care. Drawing on qualitative methods it examines the ways in which members of different residential groups narrate their (often unrealized) quest to be acknowledged and sympathized with. It is this purported 'empathy deficit', it argues, that largely sustains animosity between urban groups divided along class, ethnic and religious lines.