Re-forming the political body in the city: The interplay of male bodies and territory in urban public spaces in Tel Aviv

Abstract

This paper aims to rethink the city–nation relationship as overlapping spatial oeuvres where political communities are produced and negotiated. It examines negotiations over inclusion and exclusion from the Israeli political body conducted in enclaves along the Tel Aviv shoreline by seemingly marginal groups of men. The groups studied—homosexual cruisers at Independence Park, the Circle of Drummers at the Dolphinarium and SUV drivers at North Shore cliffs—assert themselves as part of the national political body by making claims to two of Israel's founding mechanisms: masculinity and territory. Negotiations involve appropriation of distinct territories in the urban public space through a mutual re-shaping of territory and male bodies. The examination of these surprising ‘urban design’ practices, where public spaces are means to negotiate social inclusion, proposes an analytical framework for understanding gender as a bodily and therefore spatial mechanism for identity construction and social struggle. While city and nation are often studied as competing political spheres, this paper identifies city and nation as overlapping spatial oeuvres, where the political body is being formed via concrete sites and bodily performances.