Probing the Terrain: Architectures of Control and Uncertainty in the Occupied Palestinian Territories

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  • Runa Johannessen
Whether manifest in built structures or invisible infrastructures, architectures of control in the occupied Palestinian West Bank is structurally defined by endemic uncertainty. Shifting lines and frontiers are recorded on the terrain, creating elastic zones of uncertainty necessitating navigational agility in everyday life conduct. The essay presents the case of the covert building of a chicken farm and house-to-become, where Palestinian landowner HH speculates in the territorial uncertainty and potential flexibility of the line dividing Area B from Area C, crossing his plot. HH’s disguised building efforts illustrates how different architectures of control come together to inform a practice of navigating unstable conditions by deploying the mental attitude of mētis, akin to but not identical with Henri Lefebvre’s notion of tactics. By giving an account of how flexibility adheres to the territory through its lines and laws, and how the very structure of the occupation has changed over the years, I seek to make visible the ways in which architectures of uncertainty compensate for the fleeting terrain that HH is probing.
Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationArchitecture and Control
EditorsAnnie Ring, Henriette Steiner, Kristin Eva Albrechtsen Veel
Number of pages21
Place of PublicationLeiden
PublisherBrill
Publication dateJan 2018
Pages87-107
ISBN (Print)978-90-04-35560-6
ISBN (Electronic)978-90-04-35562-0
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Jan 2018
SeriesArchitectural Intelligences
Volume1
ISSN2452-2481

ID: 162325171