In the era of globalization and the supposed end of borders (as theorised after the fall of the Berlin Wall) a closer look shows that ethnic, religious and national conflicts continue to have a strong territorial impact often leading to secession, partitioning and new borders. After World War II we have witnessed a change in the dynamics of conflict: clashes between nations have given way to conflicts within nations and in this context, cities have taken on a leading role as both the epicentre of conflict and an emblem of wider political struggles. Calame and Charlesworth's book is structured around a reflection upon the common features of 'divided cities', where single or multiple lines, in the form of an actual wall, or more subtly etched into the urban fabric, function to separate ethnic, religious and / or nationalist groups. Beirut, Belfast, Jerusalem, Nicosia and Mostar are the cities analysed by the authors, tracing the path that led to their divisions in search of a common interpretive framework. The work's limits stem from the difficulty of comparing five cases that are so different: the presention the cities' individual contexts, in the central part of the book, seems neither thorough nor comprehensive. On the other hand, the book succeeds in the unusual effort of identifying common characteristics within a framework of urban historical development, placing divided cities as the extreme outcome of the process of spatial segregation that has always characterised the urban fabric. Furthermore, the authors have striven to understand the administrative, political and diplomatic errors which led to identifying physical separation as the only solution to situations of violent conflict.
Five divided cities
In the era of globalization and the supposed end of borders (as theorised after the fall of the Berlin Wall) a closer look shows that ethnic, religious and national conflicts continue to have a strong territorial impact often leading to secession, partitioning and new borders. After World War II we have witnessed a change in the dynamics of conflict: clashes between nations have given way to conflicts within nations and in this context, cities have taken on a leading role as both the epicentre of conflict and an emblem of wider political struggles. Calame and Charlesworth's book is structured around a reflection upon the common features of 'divided cities', where single or multiple lines, in the form of an actual wall, or more subtly etched into the urban fabric, function to separate ethnic, religious and / or nationalist groups. Beirut, Belfast, Jerusalem, Nicosia and Mostar are the cities analysed by the authors, tracing the path that led to their divisions in search of a common interpretive framework. The work's limits stem from the difficulty of comparing five cases that are so different: the presention the cities' individual contexts, in the central part of the book, seems neither thorough nor comprehensive. On the other hand, the book succeeds in the unusual effort of identifying common characteristics within a framework of urban historical development, placing divided cities as the extreme outcome of the process of spatial segregation that has always characterised the urban fabric. Furthermore, the authors have striven to understand the administrative, political and diplomatic errors which led to identifying physical separation as the only solution to situations of violent conflict.