Urbicide and sectarianisation in Syria: the politics of space in Damascus and Aleppo

Abstract

This chapter investigates the dynamics of sectarianization in Damascus and Aleppo, Syria's most significant urban centres. Notably, it seeks to do so by exploring the politics of space, destruction and (re)construction that has taken place since the start of the conflict in 2011. In the context of the Syrian civil war, the predominant role of cities is easy to see, for urban and peri-urban areas have been critical locations through which war has pulsated, causing massive destruction of the built environment, the disruption of infrastructures and the deep severing of the Syrian social fabric. The chapter shows how several actors have engaged in often-competing material and symbolic interventions in Syria's cities, inscribing broader socio-political sectarian imaginaries in local spaces, thus making, unmaking and remaking the boundaries and relationships between communities and their everyday lived spaces.