Urban Elites Research Articles

« Les Historiens des Chorfa ». Deux ouvrages généalogiques sur les chorfa marocains à l’époque contemporaine (fin XIXe siècle-fin XXe siècle)

Abstract During early modern period, general censuses and genealogical works on the Moroccan genealogies of the descendants of the prophets (šurafāʾ, ašrāf) were often commissioned by sultans. Printed at the very end of the nineteenth century, al-Faḍīlī’s al-Durar al-bahiyyah was written at the request of the sultan Mawlāy Hasan. It compiled previous genealogical works of the early modern period and major genealogical sources of the nineteenth century. During the twentieth century, the last major survey of ašrāf families in Morocco is Maṣābīḥ al-bašariyyah, published in 1408/1987: it significantly describes the transformation of ašrāf families into urban elites of modern Morocco and their migration to the large cities of northern Morocco. This paper will explain the methods of investigation and classification described in al-Durar al-bahiyyah and Maṣābīḥ al-bašariyyah.

The Jersey of modernity: post-national masculinity and South Asian English Premier league football fans

The English Premier League (EPL) has sought to expand its consumer base globally over the last three decades, leading to the establishment of fanbases all over the world. South Asian football fans constitute today a significant proportion of all supporters of English football clubs. This has social and cultural effects in South Asia itself, where urban elites are starting to show affinity to football over cricket. South Asian EPL fans participate in a form of ‘post-national’ masculinity that confers them with status as ‘modern’ in the context of neoliberal globalisation. Through the structures of masculinity enabled by EPL fan culture, South Asian fans participate in cosmopolitan ‘global’ communities centred on the football club, contesting the exclusion from modernity that South Asia has been historically subjected to. South Asian EPL fans wearing their team’s jersey, in that sense, amounts to wearing ‘the jersey of modernity’.

Untamed Nature

The cat is now one of the most popular pets in the Netherlands, but it was once much maligned. The development of the European cat as a pet in general followed a trajectory from outcast with wealthy ladies as its sole ally, via idiosyncratic nobles and romantics, to the beloved and subversive muse of artists and creatives. The history of the French, English, and American cats has received attention in the past, but that of the Dutch cat has not. This latter history took a somewhat different turn, as is shown in this article. In the Netherlands the cat was adopted in the last quarter of the nineteenth century by the bourgeois and urban elite as well as by socialists, feminists, and avantgarde artists. The class-adjacent cultural tug of war that ensued about the cat was eventually won by the latter groups. These counter-cultural movements saw the cat as emblematic of their cultural position as creatives and people at the edge of society, linking the recalcitrant and enigmatic character of cats to their own idiosyncrasies. This association was to persist in the Netherlands and is mirrored today in the mainly left-wing political orientation of the Dutch cat-owner.

“He Wreaks Havoc on Earth”

Abstract This article draws attention to a criminal case recorded at the High Court of Ottoman Aleppo in 1655. Although extremely concise, the document is a good example not only of daily legal practice in an Ottoman court but also of the interaction between the judicial system and the urban elite in cases involving matters of public order that were perceived as particularly sensitive. The list of persons called before the court for an official statement of accusation is a sort of who’s who of Aleppine society. It includes some major Ottoman officeholders of the mid-17th century who were resident in Aleppo and other local notables.

Neoliberal Populism in Ontario: Premier Doug Ford’s Strategic Politics

The 2018 election of Premier Doug Ford and the Progressive Conservative (PC) government ushered in a new era of neoliberal populism in Ontario, Canada. Ford’s election platform, titled a “Plan for the People,” resonated with the business elite who supported his free-market reforms but also with middle-class and blue-collar workers living in suburban and northern areas of the province. The article examines how Ford positioned his rivals as “out of touch” members of the political and cultural urban elite, responsible for a spiralling deficit that would economi-cally burden hard-working people. Unlike many other right-wing populist leaders, who have relied on xenophobic or anti-immigrant narratives, we argue that Ford’s populist stance is dema-gogic and pragmatic. This enabled him to pivot and shift his political strategy to amass support from a diverse range of economic, racial, ethnic, and religious groups, including new immigrants. We draw on newspaper articles, public documents and reports, as well as thirteen interviews with politicians, teachers and civil servants. The article highlights how Ford’s government operated to weaken democratic institutions through measures such as “strong mayor powers,” invoking the notwithstanding clause, as well as undermining the public sector. We trace how Ford’s populism undermined public education through overt and subtle measures that weaken school boards and unions while advancing privatization. We show how Ford bypassed intermediaries, in this case, school boards and teachers’ unions, and appealed directly to “the parents” through the media and employed cli-entelist strategies such as cash transfers under the guise of “parental choice” to hollow out public education. The analysis demonstrates how Ontario stands out as a unique case study for exam-ining neoliberal populism in Canada and North America.

The implications of rural praxes legacies in Majorcan urban dance tradition

ABSTRACT The ball de bot, a folk dance from the Spanish island of Majorca, has generally been documented in the literature and academics from an urban historical perspective. Thus, urban traditions have been slowly imposed over an older rural praxis that urban elites considered dead. This article first demonstrates the social role of the ball de bot from a rural perspective based on living witnesses to the rural praxis. Second, we argue that the spatial perspective (from an urban-based view to a rural-based one) enables us to make a critical revision of the current conception of ball de bot. Finally, this research, beyond the specific case presented here, illustrates the importance of opening new perspectives on dance to move away from accepted historic discourse, and to reconsider rural experiences in order to improve our comprehension of dance.

Воинские традиции в детском костюме элиты позднеантичной Фанагории

Warrior burials are not often found in late ancient necropolises of the Cimmerian Bosporus. Such burials rarely survive untouched by robbers. In this context, a recently discovered well-preserved large tomb in Phanagoria is a really unique find. After examining this grand two-chamber vault, archaeologists obtained a set of interesting data, but special attention should be paid to warrior traditions adopted by people who lived in the late ancient capital of the Asian Bosporus. The importance of warrior subculture of the Migration period for the urban elite is manifested in the use of warrior fittings in children clothes. It is a known fact that a buried man who belonged to the warrior class is marked not only by the weapons found with him, but also by shoulder belts, elements of warrior accessories fastened on his body in a certain way. The passing of such subculture through generations of Phanagorian noble men is greatly illustrated by finds from the vault where archaeologists found in situ remains of noble warriors and their descendants, children of various age. The children clothes were largely imitating the clothes of equestrian warriors. This outstanding archaeological situation expressly testifies to cultivation of warrior traditions among boys since their early childhood and pronounced external manifestations, including in elements of their costume, of male children’s inclusion in the warrior subculture.

The colonisation of rainfed land in al-Andalus: an unknown aspect of the eleventh-century economic expansion

ABSTRACT Since the 1980s, there have been significant advancements in the study of the development of rural Andalusi settlement linked to irrigated agriculture, both in relation to large suburban green belts and to the small hydraulic systems of rural communities in mountainous regions. However, recent investigations in several dry areas and, in particular, the intensive archaeological survey that we have been carrying out in the eastern sector of La Mancha, reveal a densely populated rural region that responds to a hitherto unknown pattern. It consists of small villages on the plain, devoid of community defence elements and inhabited by peasants who made the best of the only existing natural resources that have traditionally oriented the region's economy towards cattle ranching and rainfed agriculture. Most of the villages seem to have developed from the beginning of the eleventh century, disappearing at the end of the same century due to the increase in insecurity after the Christian conquest of Toledo in 1085. Their existence would be associated with a general context of population growth that intensified the competition between urban elites and peasants for the privileged agricultural areas and, as a result, the colonisation of less favourable production areas.

Environments of the Post-Reform Village An Ecocritical Reading of Nekrasov’s Red-Nose Frost

Nikolaj Nekrasov’s Moroz, Krasnyj nos (Red-Nose Frost) (1863) focuses on the death and legacy of the peasant Prokl and the suffering and death from exposure of his widow Dar’ja. Some relevant issues from an ecocritical perspective – creatures, natural forces, and the natural world in general – are portrayed as sentient and accorded respect and agency; peasants in the poem are fully enmeshed in the natural world – not insulated or isolated; and Nekrasov displaces onto a peasant Other a connection with the natural world that has been lost by his implied audience of the urban elite.

Broadcasting Out-Group Repression to the In-Group: Evidence From China

Many autocrats govern with an in-group, whose support must be secured, and an out-group, which is subject to repression. How do autocrats exploit in-group/out-group dynamics to secure their survival? One strategy, we argue, is to broadcast out-group repression to the in-group as a signal of the regime’s capacity for violence. Empirically, we focus on China, where the government represses ethnic Uyghurs in Xinjiang. Drawing on 1 million articles from six propaganda newspapers, we show that the regime broadcasts out-group repression to urban elites on each anniversary of the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre, when 10% of Beijing residents joined anti-regime protests. To understand its effects, we conducted a survey experiment balanced on the national census during the June 2020 Tiananmen anniversary. Using a list experiment to mitigate preference falsification, we show that CCP propaganda about Uyghurs during the Tiananmen anniversary discourages protests among politically engaged urban elites because they fear repression.

The Genesis of an Urban Flora: New Plants, Their Conflicts and Regulations in Colombian Cities

Abstract This paper addresses the nineteenth-century genesis of the urban flora in Bogotá and Medellín. Using historical evidence, it explores how these two Colombian cities turned into floristic islands different from their nearby environments. This study shows how the uniqueness of the urban flora responds to a historical accumulation of species followed by an increase of the botanical repertoire of the cities. This enrichment of plants was accompanied with new human-plant interactions based on disciplined behaviours implemented by the emergent urban elite. Through organisations such as the Embellishment Society of Bogotá, these elites established mechanisms of green proselytising to solve conflict between people and plants that unfolded in the recently opened parks and gardens. By opening a dialogue between urban, landscape and ethnobotanical studies, this paper explores an integrative approach towards the plants in cities, showing how the urban nature in highly biodiverse cities is a historical process not free of conflicts and negotiations between humans and photosynthetic organisms.

Biographies of a Reformation: Religious Change and Confessional Coexistence in Upper Lusatia, 1520–1635 by Martin Christ

Reviewed by: Biographies of a Reformation: Religious Change and Confessional Coexistence in Upper Lusatia, 1520–1635 by Martin Christ Susan Mobley Biographies of a Reformation: Religious Change and Confessional Coexistence in Upper Lusatia, 1520–1635. By Martin Christ. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2021. 261 pp. This work re-examines the Reformation in Upper Lusatia (German-Polish border region), focusing on six cities comprising the Lusatian League, and challenges the traditional understanding of the Reformation in Upper Lusatia as a "strictly Lutheran affair" (28). It also qualifies the confessionalization thesis, arguing that the Reformation in Upper Lusatia was far more complex than previously accepted and was shaped not only by influences from neighboring Saxony but also by the distant but acknowledged rule of the Catholic king of Bohemia. The book contains eight chapters, each organized around an individual from one of the cities of the Lusatian League, plus a conclusion. This organizing principle allows the author to illustrate the contours of the Reformation and to feature various aspects of civic life that affected religious change. Christ effectively illustrates that these "stately actors," regardless of their own religious position, found themselves mediating between an increasingly Lutheran population in the region, influential Catholic institutions such as convents, and a Catholic king. Because of the particularly strong position of the towns of the Lusatian League, the king of Bohemia rarely intervened in their affairs, leaving the urban elites to negotiate [End Page 235] and resolve religious conflict. As a result, the religious landscape of Upper Lusatia featured what the author describes as "confessional coexistence" or "religious syncretism." After the Peace of Augsburg, however, only Lutheranism and Catholicism were tolerated; Zwinglianism and Calvinism were not. While the author makes a convincing case for the multiconfessional landscape of Upper Lusatia, his argument for syncretism is less compelling. At times the author does not provide enough context for the reader to be able to see the syncretism. For example, in chapter five he clearly sketches out the differences between Catholic and Lutheran deathbed rituals which allows the reader to see that the people of Bautzen incorporated elements of both. Christ does not provide the same context for other practices such as marriage, baptism, and communion, which makes it difficult to discern distinct confessional aspects. At other times the distinctions between Lutheranism and Catholicism are perhaps overdrawn, because, as the author himself acknowledges, confessional boundaries were fluid for much of the sixteenth century and even medieval Catholicism was marked by a broad range of accepted beliefs and practices. The book is based upon extensive reading in the secondary literature and draws upon multiple, if often fragmentary, primary sources. Citations are plentiful—perhaps too much so, as each chapter contains an average of one hundred footnotes. The book contains helpful maps and illustrations as well as a comprehensive bibliography but is unfortunately marred by careless editing. One sees numerous typographical errors, inconsistent capitalization of the word "Bible," and confusing use of the word "transgression." The writing in some chapters is clunky, while in other chapters the prose is smooth and readable. The author presents a compelling case for the complexities of the Reformation which must be understood not only from the perspectives of the rulers, advisors, and theological combatants, but also from lesser stately actors, like mayors and town councilors, and town populations. Away from imperial politics and intellectual theological debates the urban populace desired "peace, quiet and unity" (227) above all and were willing to compromise to maintain order. While [End Page 236] the region displays perhaps a greater range of beliefs in the sixteenth century than before, one gets the sense that the people of Upper Lusatia in the early modern era acted much as they did before and after the Reformation—owing due fealty to secular and religious authorities, but largely managing their own affairs, both civic and religious, through argument, negotiation, and compromise. Susan Mobley Concordia University Wisconsin Mequon, Wisconsin Copyright © 2023 Johns Hopkins University Press and Lutheran Quarterly, Inc.

Craft Culture in Early Modern Japan: Materials, Makers, and Mastery

Christine Guth’s monograph offers a new perspective on craft culture in early modern Japan. Rather than dealing with craft simply from the point of view of those who engage in the craft, and with the subject in a chronological fashion, she deals with “craft culture” in all of its various facets, from the people who engaged in the craft-making, to the networks of knowledge surrounding the craft in questions, to the materials used in craftwork. This method reveals the rich traditions involved in craft culture throughout multiple generations, and also allows us to see how innovation has played a major role in craft production, from import substitution to new techniques imported from abroad and developed domestically. Guth begins with some preliminary observations on craft culture in early modern Japan noting, for example, that the distinction between craft and fine arts in Europe did not hold in Japan until the Meiji period, although there was a rough hierarchy of craft with gold leaf and silvered lacquer at the top followed by silk crafts and porcelain production and so on. She also notes that there were, broadly speaking, two categories of craft: one was craft produced for the burgeoning early modern urban elite, often by celebrity craftspeople, and the other produced in the rural areas of Japan and intended mainly for local use, a distinction that Guth calls “art craft” versus “folk craft”. And finally, Guth notes that even though early modern Japan restricted its interactions with foreigners, there were nonetheless robust interactions with the Asian continent through Chinese contacts in Kyushu as well as with European culture through Dutch merchants in Nagasaki. These formed part of what Guth calls a network of knowledge that made the Japanese craft scene vibrant and innovative.

Women’s emancipation movement in Old Kingdom Romania. Sequences of a paradigm shift

The present paper highlights some of the contrasts and inconsistencies accompanying women's emancipation process in the Old Kingdom of Romania. In the second half of the 19th-century, Romanian society witnessed a paradigm shift best translated into the increasingly active role of women in society. It wasn't a sudden change in women's status but a gradual adaptation of the collective mind to new cultural contexts (political, social, economic, and technological). Withal, the women's emancipation movement can be understood as part of the modernization puzzle, "the best of all worlds," requiring the full involvement of both sexes. Urban elite representatives, organized in feminist societies, campaigned for women's civil and political rights, overcoming the official discourse centered on the "natural" differences between men and women. Another battle was fought to dismiss the socially constructed gender differences that destined men to public spaces and power roles while women remained cloistered in their homes. In other words, the Romanian society was willing to cultivate the woman only in her capacity as a mother (metaphorically, mother of the nation), wife, and good Christian, and less as a full-fledged citizen. As Romanian society matures and culture increases, the "feminist cause" gains more consistency, advocating for legal and economic equality, followed by political rights. Also, by navigating the list of permissions and prohibitions, women found new ways to overcome the sexual division of roles.

The Politics of Entrepreneurial Embedded ‘VIP Urbanism’ in Bengaluru: Elite Practices and Agency Problem

The cities in India have emerged as highly contested space of ‘geographical and institutional’ reconfiguration and reproducing urban neoliberal policy experiments such as place-marketing, public–private partnership, and local boosterism projects producing new forms of ‘urban entrepreneurialism’ (Smitha, 2017a; Sudhira, 2017). In fact, a variety of neoliberal reforms were introduced in the national context are translated into entrepreneurial planning and policy-induced evictions, displacement and resettlement articulated through various redevelopment projects such as metro rail projects, flyovers and roads in the local context. The urban policies are embedded in the dynamic confluence of economic elites and interest at one hand and reconfiguring local politics on the other. Under these circumstances, realigned institutional practices and regulatory regimes with diverse actors, alliances and organisations are forged with competing hegemonic visions and developmental models (Harvey, 1989; Jessop, 2002; Brenner and Theodore, 2022a). The city government in Bengaluru is increasingly networking with urban elites such as corporate echelons, real estate and land developers, non-governmental organisations and private investors to develop public spaces of daily interactions and practices which are carefully planned to bolster urban image. Such elite coalitions of corporate, public–private and local government have been wielding their collective power and lobbied for changes in various mega- local developmental projects. These elite practices eventually have led to overriding, manipulating and destabilising municipal government and planning instruments. As a result, new forms of polarisation intensifying inequalities at different spatial scales continue to proliferate in the city. Illustrating the case of Bengaluru, the study demonstrates how these non-political entities influence the municipal governance. Clearly, a transition towards ‘entrepreneurial urbanism’ signifying a scenario of ‘less government’ and ‘more corporate’ advocating that cities must be ‘run in a more business-like manner’. The study draws an attention to the spatial dimension of the role of ‘agency’ while critically assessing urban governance.

‘Bigwig hatred’ and the emergence of the first Scandinavian agrarian‐populist party

AbstractIn the genealogy of the Scandinavian populist‐party family, agrarian populism has been largely neglected and, when discussed at all, it is traced back to Finland in the late 1950s. This paper argues: (i) that agrarian populism long predated the 1950s and that it was politically salient from the decade before Finnish independence in 1917; (ii) that it is useful to distinguish between an agrarian‐class and agrarian‐populist party type; (iii) that in wider comparative perspective, first‐wave Finnish agrarian populism was distinctive; and iv) that during the critical party‐building phase, the Finnish Agrarian Party (AP) is best characterised a populist party embodying a diffuse small‐farmer antipathy towards socially superior urban elites. The AP did not create this ‘bigwig hatred’ (herraviha), but in perpetuating it and ‘othering it’ within a binary ‘us‐and‐them’ paradigm, it became the first populist party in both Finland and Scandinavia.

Rites of Resistance: Urban Liturgy and the Crowd in the Patarine Revolt of Milan, c.1057–75

This essay uses an unexploited liturgical source, a twelfth-century order book by the Milanese cleric Beroldo, to illuminate how processions shaped the practice of the largest and most radical popular movement of the central Middle Ages, the Pataria of Milan, during a pivotal moment of urban change. Religious processions had the power to project episcopal authority across a rapidly expanding urban population. They also sanctioned the redistribution of wealth and resources to city churches. At the same time, they provided a possible grammar of resistance to those who rose up against urban elites. The Pataria struggled at the pulpit and on the streets for the sexual and economic purity of the clergy. It first erupted in the city on 10 May 1057—during a liturgical parade. The conflict between supporters of religious reform on the one hand, and the archbishop’s aristocratic court and clergy on the other, persisted until the movement’s defeat in 1075. Until then, Patarine violence continually disrupted liturgical time, tearing priests from their altars and overturning solemn processions. The article introduces Beroldo and other Milanese liturgical sources in context, and their value as witnesses to later eleventh-century history. It surveys how episcopal processions responded to urban expansion and developed a growing but unstable social and political importance. With a picture of the urban and liturgical landscape in place, it then investigates how Patarine violence contested the ways that processions, on days such as Easter baptism or the Three Day Litanies, created civic community and communicated relations of power.

Crybaby Candidates and Apaleadores: Manly Self-Restraint, Violence, and Ethnicity in Late Nineteenth-Century Guatemala City

ABSTRACT The cultivation of coffee and the Liberal Reforms of the 1870s instigated a transformation in the social composition of Guatemala City’s urban elite as rural and working-class ladinos rose to economic and political prominence. In response to this social mobility, criollo elites codified the precepts of hombría de bien, or proper manhood, in etiquette guides to distinguish themselves from ladinos, who they argued were characterized by rudeza or brashness. Contrary to criollo insistence, however, both they and ladinos prioritized self-restraint as the hallmark of their manliness. Where the two groups differed, however, was the constitution of self-restraint, especially concerning rage, cowardice, and the nature of violence. The political careers of Próspero Morales and José León Castillo provide examples of competing views of manliness during the 1890s. Crucially, the coffee depression during the closing years of the century signaled a shift toward ladino manliness as violence pervaded political life.

Urban water crises driven by elites’ unsustainable consumption

AbstractOver the past two decades, more than 80 metropolitan cities across the world have faced severe water shortages due to droughts and unsustainable water use. Future projections are even more alarming, since urban water crises are expected to escalate and most heavily affect those who are socially, economically and politically disadvantaged. Here we show how social inequalities across different groups or individuals play a major role in the production and manifestation of such crises. Specifically, due to stark socioeconomic inequalities, urban elites are able to overconsume water while excluding less-privileged populations from basic access. Through an interdisciplinary approach, we model the uneven domestic water use across urban spaces and estimate water consumption trends for different social groups. The highly unequal metropolitan area of Cape Town serves as a case in point to illustrate how unsustainable water use by the elite can exacerbate urban water crises at least as much as climate change or population growth.

Guarding the Urban Elite: Hospitality Security in São Paulo

AbstractIn the past decade, Brazil's largest city, São Paulo, has witnessed an exponential growth in private security. In this article, we contribute to understandings of how security shapes urban life by focusing on what we call hospitality security, which takes place in elite spaces of residence and leisure such as high‐end neighborhoods, gated communities, and shopping malls. Drawing on long‐term ethnographic fieldwork, we argue that hospitality security is a specific urban formation that combines protection with care for spaces and clients. As such, it is not just another paid protection service, but is viewed as a necessary force for creating a desirable quality of life and fostering an ease of urban circulation that is seen as absent from public spaces due to high crime and ongoing eruptions of police violence. Hospitality security thus attempts to produce urban stability and predictability by maintaining harmony in residential and commercial environments and ensuring foreseeable social interactions while requiring security guards to uphold an unequal, racialized status quo.