Abstract
The destruction of Mosul's Old Town has led to sudden and unmanaged displacements of different ethnic, cultural and professional communities who departed northern Iraq's medieval trade and cultural centre. While the reconstruction of historic monuments was prioritised for the post-ISIS recovery process, the disappearance of trade, culture, and communities had a more lasting impact on the erasure of memory, traditional practices and social interactions in the Historic Centre. Moving away from the conventions of planned and structured return in post-conflict cities, this paper investigates the growing and unstructured spontaneous processes of displacement, relocation, and rebuilding as an unmanaged process where the central government and the local authority had limited impact on the daily and active return of displaced communities and craftsmen. We argue that the active and interconnected networks of trade, craft communities and livelihoods in the Old City can be activated by individualistic efforts to trigger a spontaneous, yet effective and decentralised approach to post-conflict return in Iraq. This paper navigates local narratives, spaces of memory and spatial patterns of displacement and return, using the observations, spatial mapping, first-hand local narratives and flows of displacement.
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Disclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.