Rami Daher: “The City in the Midst of Neoliberal Urban Transformations: 'Families, Agencies, Actors and Urban Activists'"

Rami Daher (Associate Professor of Architecture, German Jordanian University, Amman) “The City in the Midst of Neoliberal Urban Transformations: "Families, Agencies, Actors and Urban Activists” " ISLAM PAST & PRESENT WORKSHOP SERIES All talks will take place in Stanford Archaeology Center, Seminar Room. First, the presentation presents Amman's genealogy and urban heritage as "heritage in between" discursive practices (official, academic, and geopolitical) in an attempt to explain and explicate why the urban heritage of the City was understudied and marginalized. This section of the presentation also attempts to understand the details of the late re-discovery of that heritage and the City's specificity which only occurred recently through several phenomena of which was urban rehabilitation. Second, the presentation attempts to discursively understand this new phenomenon of coming back to the City's historic urban quarters, the emergence of urban activists, and urban rehabilitation endeavors that thrive to resist current neoliberal urban transformations and provide an alternative urban vision for the City Amman. This phenomenon is manifested through novels on the City, urban regeneration projects in historic neighborhoods, emergence of neighborhood associations, emergence of urban tourist trails and maps, studies and research monograph on the City's urban heritage, activists involvement in their City who thrive to objectify social equity and attempt to create inclusive public spaces, other). Third, the presentation also attempts to identify in more details these actors and agents behind such endeavors and to understand their different discourses and levels of attachment and engagement in the City.