Territorial stigma formation in the Israeli city of Bat Yam, 1950-1983: Planning, people and practice

The paper analyses the process of territorial stigma formation in the case of the Israeli city of Bat Yam. Focusing on the period of 1950-1983, it argues that the stigma was constituted historically by a combination of three distinct attributes, namely its accelerated urban growth and (a lack of) appropriate planning, the (ethnic) composition of the population, and everyday practices of deviant conduct, primarily crime. Taken together, these produced the city as a socio-spatial mélange in which physical disorder, ethnic 'others' and explicit illegality reign. Using a wide range of primary and secondary sources, the paper seeks to refine understanding of the discursive mechanisms by which images of (types-of) people are juxtaposed with those of (types-of) places at particular historical junctures to create and sustain territorial stigmas.