Tovi Fenster | Tel Aviv University (original) (raw)

Papers by Tovi Fenster

Environment and Planning C: Politics and Space, 2019

The paper presents a micro-geography research methodology that emphasizes the contested historiog... more The paper presents a micro-geography research methodology that emphasizes the contested historiography of a house in 58 Shivtei Israel St in Jaffa. It explores the changing Palestinian/Israeli ownership of the house in its colonial urban setting, since 1948 until today, and analyses how it functions within current day urban planning and transformation. The detailed analysis of the specific allocation and planning procedure reveals how a binary conflict/consensus standpoint is not helpful to fully understand the political relations operating through the urban planning process. Rather, the paper suggests we need to think the relations between the two as a dynamic continuum along which we can locate the various claims of the different actors in the urban arena. This nuanced analysis helps us to uncover a contentious planning process which is based on contestation, tension and disagreement, but also on pragmatism and acceptance – a process through which the different actors reposition t...

Geografiska Annaler Series B-human Geography, Sep 1, 2016

Abstract This paper examines “moments of residents' awareness” and their ethics in three plan... more Abstract This paper examines “moments of residents' awareness” and their ethics in three planning processes, each representing different relations between local and professional knowledge in the course of the three‐year regeneration project in Meonot Yam neighborhood, Bat Yam, Israel. This new terminology emphasizes how nuanced relations between various types of knowledge better explain the challenges faced by planners and residents in regeneration projects. These moments reflect residents' empowerment, challenging the binary view of professional/powerful versus local/ powerless knowledge that characterizes modernist thinking. The paper proposes that in such complicated processes it helps to analyze moments of power/knowledge transformation, from which one can learn that conflict and disagreement, and not only consensus, can lead to residents' empowerment.

How does a multidisciplinary community-based clinic work with an urban community to regenerate it... more How does a multidisciplinary community-based clinic work with an urban community to regenerate its deteriorating real estate? This chapter analyzes the three-year experience of students working with residents of the Jewish neighborhood Yaffo Gimel (“Jaffa C”) located in the mixed Jewish-Arab city in the south of Jaffa. What started as an initiative by Tel Aviv University’s Legal Clinic to help residents with legal orders they received from the municipality continued as the joint work of a multidisciplinary clinic consisting of three entities: planning (based in the Department of Geography, Faculty of Humanities), law (based in the Faculty of Law), and real estate (based in the real estate institute, Faculty of Management). This clinic became involved in an urban regeneration project in which three more actors played key roles besides the university clinic: the limited resource residents, the municipality, and the private developer that became involved later on.

Journal of Higher Education Outreach and Engagement, Sep 16, 2015

Students worked with low-income Jaffa residents on a 3-year building renewal project as part of a... more Students worked with low-income Jaffa residents on a 3-year building renewal project as part of a multidisciplinary clinic operated through the collaboration of the Faculty of Law, the Department of Geography at the Faculty of Humanities, and the Faculty of Management at Tel-Aviv University. Alternative models in the legal and planning literature inspired clinic participants to seek more equal power relations between the actors in this project, thus serving as social change agents. In light of the clinic's primary task-teaching and training-the authors analyzed its potentials and limitations as an agent of social change, focusing on how to cultivate (a) an intimate relationship between students and residents, (b) constructive collaborations between disciplines, and (c) linkage between academic theoretical material and fieldwork. These measures are key for enabling students to develop an empowering approach toward residents and a critical, self-conscious professional identity.

Geografiska Annaler: Series B, Human Geography, 2016

This paper examines “moments of residents' awareness” and their ethics in three planning proc... more This paper examines “moments of residents' awareness” and their ethics in three planning processes, each representing different relations between local and professional knowledge in the course of the three‐year regeneration project in Meonot Yam neighborhood, Bat Yam, Israel. This new terminology emphasizes how nuanced relations between various types of knowledge better explain the challenges faced by planners and residents in regeneration projects. These moments reflect residents' empowerment, challenging the binary view of professional/powerful versus local/ powerless knowledge that characterizes modernist thinking. The paper proposes that in such complicated processes it helps to analyze moments of power/knowledge transformation, from which one can learn that conflict and disagreement, and not only consensus, can lead to residents' empowerment.

ABSTRACT This article looks at some aspects of the patriarchal relations surrounding the body, th... more ABSTRACT This article looks at some aspects of the patriarchal relations surrounding the body, the home and domesticity. It sheds light on the body as the home of the self and on the home as the place of the body. Although ostensibly separate, the self, body and home are linked by domesticity that connotes the “right” (i.e., the dominant) way of living. Since each is invested with emotions and contextualizes the sense of belonging and the essential emotion of “feeling at home,” all three together imply sexed/gendered being and living

Womens Studies International Forum, Sep 1, 2015

This paper develops one aspect of the (gendered and feminist) right to the city, that of inclusio... more This paper develops one aspect of the (gendered and feminist) right to the city, that of inclusion of people of diverse identities as part of the politicization of public spaces by activists. It analyzes these processes in the activities of Levinsky camp in southern Tel Aviv during the 2011 Israeli protest movement. Using the (gendered and feminist) right to the city and spatial activism concepts, the paper intervenes in current debates in that it presents practices of inclusion blurring the boundaries between "private" (hidden) people, actions and issues and publicizing them. These practices are analyzed in three stages of the camp's history: its construction; its functioning as a political space and the paradox of inclusion that emerged. In doing so, the paper emphasizes how the Mizrahi feminist activists at Levinsky articulated new ways of inclusion in their spatial activism, enabling different groups to join together with the feminist leaders for political and spatial action who maintained its momentum for a while.

Routledge eBooks, Apr 8, 2020

Gender Place and Culture, Aug 8, 2019

This article charts the changing knowledges within Israeli feminist geography in the last few dec... more This article charts the changing knowledges within Israeli feminist geography in the last few decades. It briefly reviews some of the topics that characterize Israeli scholarship, and in particular the ways in which the academic knowledge changed from the focus on women's geography, to feminist and gendered analysis of spaces, to a more recent focus on sexuality and gender. We argue that it is not that one knowledge replacing others, but rather all knowledges and approaches exist simultaneously within Israeli geography today.

Gender Place and Culture, Jan 22, 2016

Abstract This article explores the central role that gender plays across a variety of scales in t... more Abstract This article explores the central role that gender plays across a variety of scales in the development of civic capacity among residents of Meonot-Yam neighborhood in Bat-Yam, Israel. The article proposes a new, gendered reading of civic capacity which involves transforming women’s and men’s ways of thinking and acting out of the ordinary in this regeneration project, with the aim of updating and revising the term as related to planning with communities approaches. Using a performative understanding of gender based on feminist poststructuralist analysis to identity knowledge/power and place, we combine the analysis of community and personal scales, looking at ‘paradoxical moments’ to understand how the transformation in power relations has taken place and how civic capacity is developed. We do so by conducting a critical analysis of biweekly meeting minutes and in-depth interviews held over a three-year period (2010–2013). This civic capacity development is particularly important for women who manage to enhance and increase their social capital throughout those years.

ACME: An International Journal for Critical Geographies, Aug 5, 2015

As research continues to configure the meaning and manifestations of actually existing neoliberal... more As research continues to configure the meaning and manifestations of actually existing neoliberalism this paper takes one social phenomenon – urban community gardens – and examines how it is being newly integrated under the conditions of neoliberal urban governance. It examines how community gardens are being applied by decision makers and NGOs into two cities in Israel – Jerusalem and Tel Aviv-Jaffa – where community gardens have been cultivated only since 2000. The analysis offers a more dynamic understanding of the interplay of local and global forces that produce the urban space, and a broader understanding of controlled community gardens.

Planning Theory & Practice, Jul 3, 2014

Cities, Jun 1, 2018

Based on an ethnographic research conducted over three years (2010-2012), this paper suggests new... more Based on an ethnographic research conducted over three years (2010-2012), this paper suggests new analytical concepts reflecting two types of temporal activism aimed at exercising the ethnic and gendered right to the city: daily activism and anecdotal activism. This analysis is based on a study of the activities of the feminist Mizrahi 1 movement Achoti (Hebrew for my sister). The findings show that there are more than one way and more than one space to fulfill the feminist and Mizrahi right to the city. It also argues that activism as a means to fulfill the right to the city produces a "third space" that is both temporal and temporary, and can be identified in both types of temporal activism.

Planning Theory & Practice, Jun 1, 2005

This article focuses on the variety of images, perceptions and social constructions about a city ... more This article focuses on the variety of images, perceptions and social constructions about a city articulated by the different 'actors' which use and shape globalizing urban settings. The actors in focus are mainly the planners (representing the authoritative aspects of planning and city management) and the residents of the city (those who enjoy or are adversely affected by different planning visions and projects). Planners mainly use their professional knowledge, which they obtained from formal education. Residents built up their perceptions and images of the city in a more intuitive way, from their daily routine practices in the city. Following this, the article explores the intricate and sometimes complicated relations between the various types of knowledge involved in the planning process with the aim to find out whose perceptions of the city are incorporated in the planning processes. Focusing on knowledge as a base for formulating cityscapes stems from a personal position and experience as planners, as members of a planning team, nominated by the Tel Aviv Municipality to devise a 'new strategic plan' for the Central Bus Station (CBS) area in the city. The article begins with a short introductory background, describing the social and economic situation of Jewish residences and non-Jewish labour migrants of the CBS area in Tel Aviv. It then outlines some theoretical frameworks regarding the different perceptions of this area by the different 'actors' involved in its production. The article concludes with some insights regarding the ways that globalizing cities are planned and managed.

Gender, Place & Culture, 2013

The accuracy of the Content should not be relied upon and should be independently verified with p... more The accuracy of the Content should not be relied upon and should be independently verified with primary sources of information. Taylor and Francis shall not be liable for any losses, actions, claims, proceedings, demands, costs, expenses, damages, and other liabilities whatsoever or howsoever caused arising directly or indirectly in connection with, in relation to or arising out of the use of the Content. This article may be used for research, teaching, and private study purposes. Any substantial or systematic reproduction, redistribution, reselling, loan, sub-licensing, systematic supply, or distribution in any form to anyone is expressly forbidden.

Planning Theory & Practice, 2009

ABSTRACT The aim of this paper is to present the three steps method of using cognitive temporal (... more ABSTRACT The aim of this paper is to present the three steps method of using cognitive temporal (CT) maps as a support to an individual's participation in the planning process. The term cognitive temporal maps refers to the process of drawing and comparing maps of past, present and future desired environments as an approach to assist the planning process. The three steps method which includes in-depth interviews, drawing CT maps, and a dialogue between the researcher/planner and the interviewee/resident is presented as a method which helps to expose the local spatial knowledge necessary for effective planning.

... Arabs of the Naqab/Negev Safa Abu-Rabia 5 One Place - Different Memories: The Case of Yaad an... more ... Arabs of the Naqab/Negev Safa Abu-Rabia 5 One Place - Different Memories: The Case of Yaad and Miaar Tovi Fenster 6 The Reconstructed City as Rhetorical Space: The Case of Volgograd Elena Trubina 7 Seoul: City, Identity and the Construction of the Past Guy Podoler 8 ...

Women's Studies International Forum, 2012

Adopting a qualitative method, the study examines the everyday tactics that sixty Palestinian wom... more Adopting a qualitative method, the study examines the everyday tactics that sixty Palestinian women from Jaffa employ in order to cope with various strategies of powergender, cultural, national and globalthat limit their everyday spatial practices. Based on the narratives of these women, the study suggests to distinguish between pro-active and non-active tactics which create or diminish the construction of spaces of belonging on the base of daily negotiations, and ways of maneuvering that Palestinian women use against these strategies of power. Pro-active tactics create alternative spaces; enable the manipulation of social and cultural codes; and create the home as a space of independence. Non-active tactics work against ethnic allocation; discriminatory Palestinian and Jewish development and Islamization of space. The study considers spaces of belonging, which are created by daily negotiations and tactics, to be the "third space", not only the space occupied by oppressed and marginalized groups, but also a space of opportunities that affords these women the possibility of making changes in their spatial practices.