[Reader-list] 'Collective towns in Iraqi Kurdistan', ALF, Oct 18

[francesca recchia]

for those of you who are in bangalore...
hope to see you there!
 francesca recchia
kiccovich at yahoo.com
it +39 338 166 3648




Dear friends,

The Urban Research and Policy Programme of the National Institute of Advanced 
Studies and the Alternative Law Forum invite you to a talk on: 

 
'From forced displacement to urban cores: the case of collective towns in Iraqi 
Kurdistan'

by
 
         Francesca Recchia  
  

on

Monday, October 18, 2010 at 6.00 p.m.

at Alternative law Forum* 
 
      Abstract:
Reflecting on the 1980s forced displacement of Kurdish people by Saddam Hussein, 
the lecture presents a historical reconstruction of the use of territorial 
design as a tool for ethnic and urban control in the context of Northern Iraq. 
 The Ba’athist regime in Iraq proceeded to a massive displacement of people from 
the villages on the mountainous areas in the Kurdistan Region down to the 
valleys. For this purpose, the government specifically designed Collective Towns 
(mujamma’at).  The planning and design of Collective Towns initially responded 
to a logic of rationalisation and cost-effectiveness, but was successively 
turned into one of the political tools that Saddam Hussein used to manage the 
tensions with the Kurdish population of Iraq.  After the fall of Saddam 
Hussein’s regime, Collective Towns were not dismantled, but were appropriated by 
inhabitants and governments and turned into fully functional urban centres at 
the core of contemporary urbanisation in Kurdistan.  As a way of conclusion, the 
discussion will focus on how Collective Towns “subversively” evolved from 
structures of oppression into potentially open nuclei of urban development.

About the Speaker:

Francesca Recchiais a researcher and lecturer, who has worked in several 
different countries: Iraq. Holland, Italy, Sweden, Pakistan, Palestine among 
others. Her approach is constructed on a strong interdisciplinary ground 
intersecting the fields of Social, Postcolonial, Visual and Urban Studies. She 
is interested in the geo-political dimension of cultural processes and mainly 
deals with the relations between power, space design
and social conflicts. She has been a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the 
Bartlett School of Planning, University College of London, holds a PhD in 
Cultural Studies at the Oriental Institute in Naples and a MA in Visual Cultures 
at Goldsmiths College, University of London. Her publications include ‘Within 
the Circle of Fear. Field notes from Iraqi Kurdistan’ in Sarai Reader 08: Fear,  
the forthcoming ‘Memory and Place. Perspectives from Iraqi Kurdistan’ in Third 
Text Asia, and ‘Radical Territories of Affection' in Art and Activism in the Age 
of Globalization.

* Alternative Law Forum
122/4 Infantry Road 

(opposite Infantry Wedding House)

Bangalore 560001
      Tel - 22865757


[Photo by Ehsan Maliki]

See:
http://emaleki.photoshelter.com/gallery/Iraq-Saddams-Collective-Houses-in-Daratoo-and-Kasnazan-Erbil/G0000R6mCJNmlYBE





-- 
Carol Upadhya
Professor
School of Social Sciences
National Institute of Advanced Studies
Indian Institute of Science Campus
Bangalore 560012
India

office:  +91 80 2218 5000/ 5141 (ext) 
cell:      +91(0) 97408 50141

carol at nias.iisc.ernet.in
carol.upadhya at gmail.com


Programme Co-Director, Provincial Globalisation: The Impact of Reverse 
Transnational Flows in India's Regional Towns 

http://www.aissr.uva.nl/movingmatters/projects.cfm
http://www.nias.res.in/researchgroups-sss-provincial-globalisation.php