Urbicide in Syria : A Postcolonial Understanding of Civil War

Through the cases of Damascus and Aleppo and adopting a postcolonial perspective, this book explores how urbicide (the destruction and violent recomposition of urban space) is central to the Syrian regime’s wartime rearticulation of state-society dynamics, the production of loyalty, and the shaping of political subjectivities. -- .

This book provides an exhaustive analysis of the relationship between violence, urban space, and political subjectivity in Syria. It does so through an exploration of how urbicide, the violent destruction and alteration of the urban fabric, becomes a tool for the regime’s governmental and sovereign exercise of power, decisively redefining state-society dynamics and cementing political loyalty in Syria. Adopting a critical and postcolonial perspective, and through the cases of Damascus and Aleppo, the volume presents a unique perspective on the civil war by examining socio-material changes in everyday political spaces and processes, from mundane destruction to urban development and reconstruction efforts, and how these are experienced by local communities. Featuring rich data collection through interviews, archival research, and aesthetic sources, the book ultimately foregrounds Syrians’ political agency and creativity despite ruination.