Living in a Mixing Neighborhood: Reflexive Coexistence and the Discourse of Separation

Between Mount Carmel and the Mediterranean Sea lies a city that has been called “the mother of strangers” and “a mixed city.” It is also known as “a city of coexistence,” in contrast to the wider social context of ethno-national separation in Israel. The residents of Haifa, however, live mostly in separate, homogenous neighborhoods. Only a minority of its inhabitants live in a heterogeneous social setting among members of other ethno-national groups. Hadar, one of Haifa’s most diverse neighborhoods, is where I conducted four years of ethnographic research for this dissertation. Surrounded by Hadar's residents, who endeavor to make sense of living with their Other(s), I studied the various practices they use to bridge the gap between their experience of living in a mixing social environment and the deepening discourse of separation in Israel. My main finding is that being subjected to these contradictory social forces induces practices of reflexivity that open a variety of paths to bridge this gap: from working to eliminate social diversity, to legitimizing acceptance of the gap and its virtues, and to imagining an alternative discourse. The dissertation introduces the concept of “Reflexive Coexistence” to academic and public discussions of mixed cities. This concept is developed by presenting and analyzing the different forms it may take: in practices of representing past experiences of coexistence, in everyday interactions between Hadar's residents, who have diverse senses of belonging to their neighborhood, and in residents’ future-oriented political activism and artistic projects. Particularly in light of deepening practices of separation between Jews and Arabs in Israel, learning from the social dynamics of mixing social settings can offer public and academic discussions new, counter-hegemonic ideas for a more hopeful future.PHDAnthropologyUniversity of Michigan, Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate Studieshttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/137116/1/regev_1.pd