34 research outputs found

    Drug development progress in duchenne muscular dystrophy

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    Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) is a severe, progressive, and incurable X-linked disorder caused by mutations in the dystrophin gene. Patients with DMD have an absence of functional dystrophin protein, which results in chronic damage of muscle fibers during contraction, thus leading to deterioration of muscle quality and loss of muscle mass over time. Although there is currently no cure for DMD, improvements in treatment care and management could delay disease progression and improve quality of life, thereby prolonging life expectancy for these patients. Furthermore, active research efforts are ongoing to develop therapeutic strategies that target dystrophin deficiency, such as gene replacement therapies, exon skipping, and readthrough therapy, as well as strategies that target secondary pathology of DMD, such as novel anti-inflammatory compounds, myostatin inhibitors, and cardioprotective compounds. Furthermore, longitudinal modeling approaches have been used to characterize the progression of MRI and functional endpoints for predictive purposes to inform Go/No Go decisions in drug development. This review showcases approved drugs or drug candidates along their development paths and also provides information on primary endpoints and enrollment size of Ph2/3 and Ph3 trials in the DMD space

    The Presence of the Prophet in Early Modern and Contemporary Islam

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    This collective volume explores the figure of the Prophet Muhammad in early Islam and its pious transformations in later times. It illuminates the interplay of doctrine, literature and visual arts in the formation of a “Prophetic culture”.; Readership: Scientific and general readership interested in Islam and Muslim culture in different regional and historical contexts, Historical Anthropology of Religion, Comparative Religion, Religious Literature and Arts

    A dynamic study with side channel against An Identification Based Encryption

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    Recently, the side channel keeps the attention of researchers in theory of pairing, since, several studies have been done in this subject and all them have the aim in order to attack the cryptosystems of Identification Based Encryption (IBE) which are integrate into smart cards (more than 80% of those cryptosystems are based on a pairing). The great success and the remarkable development of the cryptography IBE in the recent years and the direct connection of this success to the ability of resistance against any kind of attack, especially the DPA and DFA attacks, leave us to browse saying all the studies of the DPA and DFA attacks applied to a pairing and we have observed that they have no great effect to attack the cryptosystems of IBE. That’s what we will see in this paper. In this work we will illuminate the effect of the DPA attack on a cryptosystems of IBE and we would see on what level we can arrive. Thus in the case where this attack can influence on those cryptosystems, we can present an appropriate counter measures to resist such attack. In the other part we will also propose a convenient counter-measure to defend the attack DFA when the embedding degree is eve

    End-to-End Encrypted Group Messaging with Insider Security

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    Our society has become heavily dependent on electronic communication, and preserving the integrity of this communication has never been more important. Cryptography is a tool that can help to protect the security and privacy of these communications. Secure messaging protocols like OTR and Signal typically employ end-to-end encryption technology to mitigate some of the most egregious adversarial attacks, such as mass surveillance. However, the secure messaging protocols deployed today suffer from two major omissions: they do not natively support group conversations with three or more participants, and they do not fully defend against participants that behave maliciously. Secure messaging tools typically implement group conversations by establishing pairwise instances of a two-party secure messaging protocol, which limits their scalability and makes them vulnerable to insider attacks by malicious members of the group. Insiders can often perform attacks such as rendering the group permanently unusable, causing the state of the group to diverge for the other participants, or covertly remaining in the group after appearing to leave. It is increasingly important to prevent these insider attacks as group conversations become larger, because there are more potentially malicious participants. This dissertation introduces several new protocols that can be used to build modern communication tools with strong security and privacy properties, including resistance to insider attacks. Firstly, the dissertation addresses a weakness in current two-party secure messaging tools: malicious participants can leak portions of a conversation alongside cryptographic proof of authorship, undermining confidentiality. The dissertation introduces two new authenticated key exchange protocols, DAKEZ and XZDH, with deniability properties that can prevent this type of attack when integrated into a secure messaging protocol. DAKEZ provides strong deniability in interactive settings such as instant messaging, while XZDH provides deniability for non-interactive settings such as mobile messaging. These protocols are accompanied by composable security proofs. Secondly, the dissertation introduces Safehouse, a new protocol that can be used to implement secure group messaging tools for a wide range of applications. Safehouse solves the difficult cryptographic problems at the core of secure group messaging protocol design: it securely establishes and manages a shared encryption key for the group and ephemeral signing keys for the participants. These keys can be used to build chat rooms, team communication servers, video conferencing tools, and more. Safehouse enables a server to detect and reject protocol deviations, while still providing end-to-end encryption. This allows an honest server to completely prevent insider attacks launched by malicious participants. A malicious server can still perform a denial-of-service attack that renders the group unavailable or "forks" the group into subgroups that can never communicate again, but other attacks are prevented, even if the server colludes with a malicious participant. In particular, an adversary controlling the server and one or more participants cannot cause honest participants' group states to diverge (even in subtle ways) without also permanently preventing them from communicating, nor can the adversary arrange to covertly remain in the group after all of the malicious participants under its control are removed from the group. Safehouse supports non-interactive communication, dynamic group membership, mass membership changes, an invitation system, and secure property storage, while offering a variety of configurable security properties including forward secrecy, post-compromise security, long-term identity authentication, strong deniability, and anonymity preservation. The dissertation includes a complete proof-of-concept implementation of Safehouse and a sample application with a graphical client. Two sub-protocols of independent interest are also introduced: a new cryptographic primitive that can encrypt multiple private keys to several sets of recipients in a publicly verifiable and repeatable manner, and a round-efficient interactive group key exchange protocol that can instantiate multiple shared key pairs with a configurable knowledge relationship

    Theory and Practice of Cryptography and Network Security Protocols and Technologies

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    In an age of explosive worldwide growth of electronic data storage and communications, effective protection of information has become a critical requirement. When used in coordination with other tools for ensuring information security, cryptography in all of its applications, including data confidentiality, data integrity, and user authentication, is a most powerful tool for protecting information. This book presents a collection of research work in the field of cryptography. It discusses some of the critical challenges that are being faced by the current computing world and also describes some mechanisms to defend against these challenges. It is a valuable source of knowledge for researchers, engineers, graduate and doctoral students working in the field of cryptography. It will also be useful for faculty members of graduate schools and universities

    Research in the Archival Multiverse

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    Over the past 15 years, the field of archival studies around the world has experienced unprecedented growth within the academy and within the profession, and archival studies graduate education programs today have among the highest enrolments in any information field. During the same period, there has also been unparalleled expansion and innovation in the diversity of methods and theories being applied in archival scholarship. Global in scope, Research in the Archival Multiverse compiles critical and reflective essays across a wide range of emerging research areas and interests in archival studies; it aims to provide current and future archival academics with a text addressing possible methods and theoretical frameworks that have been and might be used in archival scholarship and research

    At the Intersection of Tangible and Intangible : Constructing a Framework for the Protection of Indigenous Sacred Sites in the Pursuit of Natural Resource Development Projects

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    La problématique de la protection des sites sacrés autochtones dans le cadre du développement des ressources naturelles est devenue un sujet d’intérêt public suite à la couverture médiatique internationale, au début de 2017, du “Dakota Access Line Protest (DAPL)” du Standing Rock Sioux dans le Nord Dakota. Toutefois, cela fait très longtemps que ces préoccupations existent pour de nombreuses communautés autochtones à travers le monde. Cette thèse aborde ce sujet à partir de trois angles complémentaires : l’anthropologie juridique / la théorie autochtone, le droit international et le droit comparatif. L’anthropologie juridique jumelée à la théorie autochtone, utilisées comme savoirs externes, permet dans cette optique une approche équilibrée, pour comprendre les conceptions du temps, de l’espace et du sacré, dans une posture non-réductrice, non-essentialisée et non-romantique, en comparant quatre juridictions, celles du Canada, des États-Unis, de l’Australie et de l’Aotearoa Nouvelle-Zélande. L’objectif de cette étude comparative est de créer une matrice qui permettra d’évaluer les mécanismes et/ou dispositions juridiques pour la protection des sites sacrés autochtones dans le cadre du développement des ressources naturelles dans les quatre systèmes juridiques comparés. Notre but est d’élaborer un cadre juridique plus efficace, sensible aux contextes particuliers, pour la protection des sites sacrés autochtones dans chacune de ces juridictions. Sensible aux contextes particuliers signifie que ce cadre sera en accord avec la culture juridique du pays, les valeurs, coutumes et identités autochtones du territoire ainsi que les normes internationales potentiellement pertinentes pour ce pays. Cette approche se doit de tenir compte des différents paliers et d’être multidimensionnelle. La perspective internationale est essentielle pour trois raisons. Tout d’abord, dans le monde moderne, on retrouve la globalisation, l’internationalisation et la glocalisation. Ensuite, les nouvelles technologies de communication permettent aux Autochtones d’obtenir des appuis à leurs causes sur la scène internationale. Et, finalement, partout à travers le monde, le principe fondamental de souveraineté des États est hautement conflictuel avec l’autodétermination des Autochtones. Cette étude est nécessairement limitée aux relations entre le droit international et les droits internes de ces quatre systèmes juridiques. Comme il s’agit d’une thèse de doctorat en droit, le droit comparatif en est au cœur. Une méthodologie similaire, en quatre étapes, est utilisée pour analyser chacune des quatre juridictions. En premier lieu, les mécanismes juridiques les plus pertinents pour la protection des sites sacrés sont examinés en détail. Deuxièmement, une étude de cas, abordée dans chaque juridiction, permet de jauger concrètement l’efficacité de ces mécanismes. De plus, la matrice élaborée auparavant sert de toile fond pour évaluer ces mécanismes dans ce contexte concret. Troisièmement, tous les éléments recueillis pour chaque juridiction sont mis en relation, analysés et synthétisés. Finalement, des conclusions sont tirées pour chaque pays et serviront à la construction du cadre proposé dans le dernier chapitre. Dans le dernier chapitre, on retrouve tout d’abord, la formulation d’une solution idéale, voire idéaliste. Ensuite, des propositions pragmatiques y sont formulées pour chaque juridiction dans son contexte actuel. Somme toute, cette thèse conclut que l’approche juridique de l’Aotearoa Nouvelle-Zélande apporte une base de réflexion intéressante. Celle-ci pourrait, en effet, être transposée aux trois autres juridictions, non pas parce que ces juridictions partagent le même héritage du Common Law, mais en raison de la possible compatibilité juridique, dans ces pays, de la méthodologie utilisée par l’Aotearoa Nouvelle-Zélande pour développer les mécanismes permettant l’expression des valeurs culturelles, des traditions et des identités autochtones, à travers les concepts et structures juridiques occidentaux.While the issue of protecting Indigenous sacred sites in the pursuit of natural resource projects only came to public attention with the international press coverage of the Standing Rock Sioux’s Dakota Access Line Protest (DAPL) in North Dakota earlier in 2017, it has long been an issue of considerable concern for Indigenous peoples worldwide. This thesis considers the matter from three angles: legal anthropology/Indigenous theory, international law and comparative law. The twin perspectives of legal anthropology and Indigenous theory are employed as external disciplines in a check-and-balance exercise that aims to clarify the Indigenous conceptions of time, space and the sacred in the four jurisdictions under comparison –Canada, the United States, Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand– in a non-reductive, non-essentialized, non-romanticized manner. The objective of this exercise is to create a matrix against which juridical mechanisms and/or legal provisions for the protection of Indigenous sacred sites can be measured in the four jurisdictions studied, with the ultimate aim of crafting an improved, context-sensitive framework for the protection of Indigenous sacred sites in each such jurisdiction. Context-sensitive framework refers to a framework aligned with the country’s legal culture, Indigenous values, customs and identities found within the boundaries of that jurisdiction, and with such international norms as may potentially be pertinent in that state. This demands a multi-faceted, layered approach. The international law perspective is crucial due to three factors: first, the predominance of phenomena such as globalization, internationalization and glocalization in the modern world; second, the telecommunications revolution, which has meant that Indigenous peoples increasingly rally support for their causes on the international stage; and third, the high-profile conflict between State sovereignty and Indigenous self-determination that is ubiquitous on the world stage. The focus of this study is necessarily limited to the relationship between international and domestic law in each of the four jurisdictions. Since this is a thesis for a doctorate in law, there is comparative law at the heart of it. In each of the four jurisdictions a similar methodology is followed. In the first step, the most pertinent legal mechanisms for the protection of sacred sites are considered from up close. The second step is to test the effectiveness of such mechanisms with reference to a concrete case study in that jurisdiction. The case study contemplates the legal mechanism in question in its factual contexts with the aid of the matrix as in the first portion of the thesis. Then a process of analysis and synthesis follows, until finally, some conclusions are drawn for utilization in the construction of the final chapter’s proposed framework. The final chapter proposes both an ideal solution and some pragmatic proposals in the context of each jurisdiction. In sum, the thesis concludes that Aotearoa New Zealand’s legal approach provides an interesting basis for further development. It is deemed to be transposable into the other three jurisdictions not based on the fact that they share a common law heritage, but rather because of the compatibility of the methodology that was followed in developing the said mechanism in a manner that gives expression to Indigenous cultural values, customs and identity through the use of Western legal structures and concepts

    On Small Degree Extension Fields in Cryptology

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    This thesis studies the implications of using public key cryptographic primitives that are based in, or map to, the multiplicative group of finite fields with small extension degree. A central observation is that the multiplicative group of extension fields essentially decomposes as a product of algebraic tori, whose properties allow for improved communication efficiency. Part I of this thesis is concerned with the constructive implications of this idea. Firstly, algorithms are developed for the efficient implementation of torus-based cryptosystems and their performance compared with previous work. It is then shown how to apply these methods to operations required in low characteristic pairing-based cryptography. Finally, practical schemes for high-dimensional tori are discussed. Highly optimised implementations and benchmark timings are provided for each of these systems. Part II addresses the security of the schemes presented in Part I, i.e., the hardness of the discrete logarithm problem. Firstly, an heuristic analysis of the effectiveness of the Function Field Sieve in small characteristic is given. Next presented is an implementation of this algorithm for characteristic three fields used in pairing-based cryptography. Finally, a new index calculus algorithm for solving the discrete logarithm problem on algebraic tori is described and analysed

    100 x Ramallah: imaginations, otherness, and (de)colonisation in antispaces of sumud : 1914-2014

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    100 . Ramallah untersucht die räumlichen Veränderungen und zugehörigen Vorstellungen von Stadt(raum) am Beispiel Ramallah – vom Niedergang des Osmanischen Reichs, über das letzte Jahrhundert Anglo- Zionistischer Kolonisierung, bis heute – und sondiert mögliche zukünftige Entwicklungen und Ideen. Die Evolution des spezifischen Raumgefüges Ramallahs stellt sich dar als Resultat von unterschiedlichen aber dennoch cyclischen Spannungen zwischen hegemonialer Kontrolle einerseits und gegenläufiger Widerstandsbewegungen andererseits. Basierend auf der eingehenden Untersuchung der Gegebenheiten und der Triangulation von morphologischen und territorialen Veränderungen mit sozio-demographischen und wirtschaftspolitischen Faktoren postuliert diese Arbeit drei Hypothesen: [1] Ramallahs Stadtraum ist das Produkt eines artikulierten kolonialen Projektes, dessen Diskurs enge, homogene Vorstellungen von Ethnie und nationaler Identität propagiert, und sterile, überwachte und gesicherte Räume hervorgebracht hat. Gleichzeitig beeinflussen heute neoliberale Diskurse die Entwicklung und verstehen die Zielbevölkerung weiterhin eher als passiven Empfänger, denn als mündiger Akteur in der Stadtproduktion. Alternative Vorstellungen von Stadt werden oft als Anomalitäten abgelehnt, bekämpft und in den seltensten Fällen umgesetzt. Das Ergebnis war und ist die (absichtliche?) Schaffung eines mutierten Systems mit einer über-bürokratischen, schlecht angepassten Verwaltung, die regelmäßig versäumt, Grundlagen zum Erfüllen sozioökonomischer Bedürfnisse bereitzustellen, und dadurch langfristig Entwicklung und Stabilität zu schaffen. [2] Die Dialektik des marxistischen Diskurses versteht Stadtraumproduktion als natürlichen (psycho-) ökologischen Prozess. Aus dieser Perspektive können die Post-Oslo-Kontroverse und Frustration in Ramallah auf die Verbitterung angesichts des sozialen „Anderssein“ – über normale großstädtische Symptome hinaus – aufgrund des akuten Anstiegs an Unsicherheit (abnehmende Sicherheit), Ungleichheit und räumliche Unwürde zurückgeführt werden. Die Kartierung von Verhaltenstendenzen und Bewegungen welche die Wiederherstellung von sumud (soziale Resilienz) zum Ziel haben lässt den Schluss zu, dass sich Spannungen – in Form von verschiedenartiger (meist spontaner) Bürgermobilisierung – zwangsläufig entladen werden. Identifizierte Faktoren und wissenschaftliche Untersuchungen deuten auf eine erhöhte Möglichkeit von Gewalt hin; ob aufgrund des hohen Grades an Militarisierung und kontroll-fanatischen Nationalstaats-Diskurs, oder der eher generellen (aber unterschätzten) Verwundbarkeit gegenüber (Natur-) Katastrophen. Der Grad und die Auswirkung von Aktivitäten von subversiven und klandestinen Sub-Gruppen wiederum hängt von mehreren Faktoren ab; ein entscheidender ist die Art und Weise, in der Stadtraum in den kommenden Jahrzehnten gedacht und produziert werden wird. [3] Städtebau, Stadtplanung und -management werden oft als Träger von Wohlergehen gesehen und gelten weniger als Katalysator von mentalen und corporealen Krisen. Die zugehörigen Berufsfelder kapitalisieren und katalysieren politische Ideologien, welche antikonformistische Visionäre einbeziehen/ausschließen in/aus formelle Prozesse der (sozial)räumlichen Produktion. Ramallah ist hier keine Ausnahme der neokolonialen Regel: Stadtplaner weisen die Schuld am un-egalitären Urbanismus von sich und verweisen auf ethnischen Unterjochung und Instabilität hin; schaffen es jedoch nicht konstruktive, anwendbare Alternativen zu erarbeiten die mögliche Unsicherheiten berücksichtigen. In einer Stadt wie Ramallah, wo subjektive Zeitlichkeit ständig neue Risikostrategien und Bevölkerungsströme hervorbringt, sind statische Rahmen für indizierte Mechanismen und Hierarchien überholt. In Kombination mit den heutigen, digital ermöglichten, pseudo-konkreten Realitäten und dem erhöhten Grad an Privatisierung, erfordert Ramallahs Resilienz dass die Produktion von Räumen demokratisiert wird und somit, auf Basis von Bürgerrechten, Räume entkolonialisiert werden. Die zukünftige Form und der Grad der Resilienz / sumud hängen von der Fähigkeit der Bevölkerung ab, ihre Wünsche, Vielfalt, Fluidität und inter-Relevanz zu verräumlichen (zu legitimieren). Zu diesem Zweck ist ein Umdenkprozess über die Rolle der Bevölkerung – als multipler Akteur und urbanem Visionär – und möglicher Interventionsbereiche von Ramallahs wesentlich. Die Arbeit ist aufgeteilt in sechs Kapitel, beginnend mit den Rahmenbedingungen, räumlichem und zeitlichem Hintergrund, und der Erläuterung der Hypothesen. Das zweite Kapitel ist darauf fokussiert, die räumliche Evolution der Stadt durch Vergleich mit politischen und sozioökonomischen Elementen nachzuverfolgen und zu verstehen, wobei philosophisch zwischen projizierten (vorgestellten, mentalen) und fundierten (wissenschaftlichen, realen) Bedeutungen, Ideologien, und ihren wirtschaftlichen, sozialen und insbesondere räumlichen Spuren und Implikationen differenziert wird. Kapitel drei legt die politisch-ökonomischen Faktoren dar, die Ramallahs räumliche Tendenzen in den letzten zwei Jahrzehnten seit der Unterschrift des Osloer Abkommen von 1993 antreiben. Gleichzeitig untersucht die Arbeit die räumlich-sozialen Beziehungen und Empfindlichkeiten die diese Diskurse legitimieren und ausreifen lassen. Kapitel vier und fünf setzen damit fort, urbane Vorhaben sowohl von privaten als auch von öffentlichen Beteiligten zu kartieren; in ihnen enthalten sind die Mandate und Einflüsse auf Macht und Entscheidungsfindung; Betriebsmodi, Strukturen und systematische Variablen; die relevantesten Projekte und Engagements; theoretische Genealogien und Vergleichsfälle; vorhergesehene räumlich-soziale Konsequenzen und die zu Grunde liegenden Chancen. Kapitel sechs schließt diese Arbeit, in dem es die Erkenntnisse der vorangegangen Kapitel in variable Vorstellungen von alternativen urbanen Realitäten zusammensetzt, die Ramallah potentiell hervorbringen könnte. Durch eine Neuverhandlung der bestehenden kolonialen Morphologie und des zentralisierten, bürokratischen Enscheidungssystems, untersucht dieses Kapitel Möglichkeiten, ökologisch, wirtschaftlich und politisch resiliente, integrative und fortschrittliche Räume für Widerstand und sozialräumliche De-Kolonialisierung zu nähren. Zum gegenwärtigen, kritischen Zeitpunkt – insbesondere für Palästina, und allgemein für Städte mit antikolonialen Revolutionen – sind Modi der Raumabsorption, Skalierung, Synthese, und Neuvorstellungen von standortspezifischen sozialen Ideologien und Bewegungen essentiell für Lebensqualität und Würde. Die Argumente in dieser Arbeit basieren auf einer Literaturrecherche mit einer Vielzahl von Werken aus verschiedenen Disziplinen, akademische und sonstige. Diese wurden mit empirischen Daten, die in zwanzig qualitativen Interviews, acht Fokusgruppen, Beobachtungen und quantitativen Indikatoren – welche in acht Feldbesuchen mit einer Gesamtzeit von 32 Wochen und mit durchschnittlich sechs Monaten Abstand gesammelt wurden – kreuzanalysiert. Neben der wissenschaftlichen Motivation dieser Arbeit soll diese auch als wissenschaftliches Narrativ dienen, das einige Facetten der aktuellen Polemiken, geäußerten Bestrebungen und intellektuellen Brainstormings über Ramallah zusammenführt. Dieser fünf Jahre andauernde Prozess hat eine Vielzahl an provozierenden und inspirierenden Unterhaltungen, Debatten, und Versammlungen durchlaufen, und zielt hiermit darauf ab, Konzepte eines aufrührerischen Urbanismus darzulegen. Die hier skizzierten Überlegungen beanspruchen nicht, unterschiedliche Verständnisweisen und Interpretationen zu verhindern oder zu limitieren, sondern sollen Aufmerksamkeit auf eine Auswahl an polychromen Aspekten lenken, die einer tieferen Untersuchung bedürfen.100 x Ramallah is an investigation of spatial (re-)imagineering of the city of Ramallah, Palestine since the demise of the Osmans and over the past century of Anglo-Zionist colonisation, and an exploration of what could follow. The line of evolution of successive Ramallite spacio-sensibilities transcribes the tensions of nonuniform yet cyclical tides of centralised hegemonic control and counter-resistance. By triangulating morphological and territorial shifts with socio-demographics and politico-economic orders this work argues through three hypotheses. First, Ramallah’s city-space is a product of an articulate colonial project whose discourse promotes narrow homogenised imaginaries of ethnicities and national identities, and therewith sterilised, surveilled and securitized spaces. These concepts have been inducing variations of both, co-optation and opposition. In the same line, neoliberal development discourses continue to infantalize target populations as passive recipients. Hence, these are decisively myopic to the fact that the latter are capable of engendering alternative imaginations, and in cases where these materialise into realities they are rejected and combated as anomalies. The result has been the (intentional?) creation of a mutated system of bureaucratic, incompatible administration that repeatedly fails to provide for basic socioeconomic needs, therewith shared development and stability. In effect, what has been unfolding in Palestine is de-development. Second, the dialectic Marxist discourse contends urbanities as natural decodings of psycho-ecological processes. Understood from this perspective, the post-Oslo contestation and frustration in the city can be traced to the exasperation of social otherness beyond regular metropolitan symptoms, due to the acute increase in scales of uncertainty (diminishing securities), inequality and spatial non-dignity. Through mapping the behavioural trend of re-making of sumud (social resilience) it can be concluded that tensions are bound to be released through (mostly ad hoc) techniques and formations of citizen mobilisations. Identified factors and scholarship indicate an elevated possibility of violence; whether due to high levels of militarisation by the nation-state policing discourses or its vulnerability to natural misfortunes. The scales and impacts of clandestine sub-group activities in turn depends on several factors, one of which is the manner by which the city-space will be produced in the coming, critical decades. Third, urban design, planning, and management are tools often advocated as bearers of welfare and rarely admitted as enablers of mental as well as corporeal crisis. These are professions that by nature capitalise on and catalyse political ideologies which include/exclude anticonformist visionaries in/from formal processes of socio-spatial production. Here Ramallah presents no exception to the neocolonial rule, where its planners (rightfully) blame the failure in forging egalitarian urbanism on racial subjugation and instability, yet fall short of constructively labouring applicable alternatives that account for uncertainty. In cities like Ramallah where subjective temporalities constantly produce new risk-strategies and population flows, static frameworks of indexed mechanisms and hierarchies are rendered obsolete. In combination with today’s digitally-enabled pseudo-concrete realities and heightened levels of privatization; Ramallah’s resilience necessitates that it democratizes spatial production and therewith decolonize its spaces based on concepts of the civic right to flourishing. The future shape and degree of resilience/sumud depend on the ability of the (self-declared) Ramallites to spatialize (grant legitimacy to) their diversity, fluidity, and inter-relevance. To that end, an Umdenkenprozess about the role and range of fields of interventions of Ramallite urban visionaries is quintessential. The outline of this work spreads over six chapters, starting with setting the parameters, territorial and temporal back-drop, and elaborates on the hypotheses. The second chapter focuses on tracing and understanding the spatial evolution of the city through cross-comparing those to political and socioeconomic elements; hence philosophically differentiating between projected (imagined, mental) and grounded (scientific, real) meanings, ideologies, and their economic, social and particularly spatial trails and implications. Chapter three expounds on the politico-economic factors fuelling Ramallah’s spatial tendencies in the past two decades since the signature of the Oslo Accords in 1993. It simultaneously investigates the spacio-social relationalities and sensibilities legitimising and incubating these discourses. Chapters four and five proceed to map urban undertakings by both public and private parties (respectively); they feature the power and decision-making mandates and influence; modes of operation, structures and systematic variables; the most relevant projects and engagements; theoretical genealogies and comparative cases; foreseen sociospatial consequences, and; the underlying opportunities. Chapter 6 concludes this work with puzzling the findings of former chapters in variable imaginations of alternative urban realities that Ramallah could potentially produce. Through re-negotiating the existing colonial morphology and centralized, bureaucratic decision-making systems, this chapter explores opportunities for nurturing environmentally, economically and politically resilient, inclusive and progressive spaces of resistance and sociospatial decolonization. In the current critical moment for Palestine specifically and cities featuring anti-colonial revolutions generally; modes of spatial absorption, scaling, synthesis, and reimagineering of locational social ideologies and movements is essential for the quality of life and dignity. Along the process arguments are based on scholarly review of a wide range of works from varying disciplines, both academic and otherwise. These were cross-analysed with empirical data collected through twenty qualitative interviews, eight focus groups, observations and quantitative indicators; collected through eight field-visits totalling thirty-two weeks and spanning over intervals of six months in average. Aside the scientific motivations of this work, it desires to serve as a scholarly narrative that coalesces some facets of the momentary polemics, voiced aspirations and intellectual brainstorming about Ramallah. This five-year process has travelled through multitude of provocative and inspiring conversations, debates, and assemblies, and herewith aims at expounding on concepts of insurgent urbanism. The reflections outlined here do not claim premise to foreclosing or limiting differing understandings and interpretations; rather it calls attention to a selection of polychromic aspects requiring deeper investigation
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