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Volume 15.1

THE SPACE OF DISPLACEMENT: MAKING MUSLIM SOUTH ASIAN PLACE IN BRITISH NEIGHBORHOODS
Noha Nasser
Globalization and postcolonialization have created new geographies of cultural “displacement” in global cities. This article examines the space of displacement created by Muslim South Asians in British cities. It argues that the cultural paradigm of global Islam is sufficiently mobile and adaptable to be reproduced in local space. The question of displacement opens up a discourse on local-global issues of identity and place-making. By examining the effect of transnational imaginings on everyday practices and social processes constructed within regimes of multiculturalism, this article examines the process of making Muslim South Asian places. Particular focus is on the social (re)production of urban, architectural and built forms in Bradford, Birmingham and London.

MOSQUES, TEMPLES, AND ORIENTALISTS: HEGEMONIC IMAGINATIONS IN BANARAS
Madhuri Desai
In a climate of rising religious fundamentalism, it is relevant and pertinent to examine the processes by which a “religious” site is created. My general premise is that historical narratives are negotiations, rather than simple renditions of fact, and thus are always reflective of their authors’ contemporary politics. Within this framework, this essay explores the processes through which the city of Banaras has been created and represented as an indisputably Hindu city. In addition to the revivalist religious agenda of the Marathas, this process has involved the hegemonic imaginations of both nineteenth-century colonial Orientalists and modern-day postcolonial nationalists.

’MARRYING MODERN PROGRESS WITH TREASURED ANTIQUITY’: JERUSALEM CITY PLANS DURING THE BRITISH MANDATE, 1917-1948
Inbal Ben-Asher Gitler
British Mandatory schemes for developing Jerusalem have seldom been examined in the context of theories of colonial urban planning. In this article I show that the British approach to designing new urban schemes for Jerusalem deviated from the norms and concepts implemented in colonial cities. I examine three official British Mandatory publications that presented comprehensive urban programs for Jerusalem, comparing them to aspects of colonial city planning. Consequently, I interpret the plans as a renegotiation of Jerusalem’s contested space, a renegotiation that erased controversy and subtly promoted an image of British supremacy.

REVIVING THE BETAWI TRADITION: THE CASE OF SETU BABAKAN, INDONESIA
Gunawan Tjahjono
This article examines the various conditions that gave rise to a new ethnic group, the Betawi, from the diverse origins of people who have settled in the area of today’s Jakarta, Indonesia. It first traces the identity-formation process of the Betawi, then examines how Betawi culture has been challenged recently by the development of Jakarta as a global city. As Indonesia’s central government has delegated more authority to localities since the end of the New Order era, the municipality of Jakarta has attempted to revive Betawi identity through development of a Cultural Village in Setu Babakan, a place where Betawis are actually a minority. However, it is questionable whether such architectural intervention either has had, or will have the desired effect on cultural revival.

TRADITIONS OF APPEARANCE: ADAPTATION AND CHANGE IN EASTERN TIBETAN DWELLINGS
Suzanne Ewing
Tibet has been described as “a heterotopia . . . a plurality of often contradictory, competing and mutually exclusive places simultaneously positioned in a single geographical location.” The question of how the combining (or not) of such difference takes place is particularly interesting to consider within the context of domestic life, since the dwelling is a key location of assimilation, appropriation or resistance to external change and influence. For many years the cultural space of Tibet has also been contested. Today, it is apart from, yet fundamentally connected with a developing global diaspora, with a displaced leadership; and it is marked by varying definitions and perceptions of its history and borders. This article explores how these competing forces have caused differences in the image of the dwelling and in the dialogue between this image and actual built and modified form to become more pronounced.