Global Neighborhoods

Jewish Quarters in Paris, London, and Berlin

By Michel S. Laguerre

Subjects: Sociology, Urban Sociology, Urban Studies, Jewish Studies, Communication
Paperback : 9780791475522, 298 pages, July 2009
Hardcover : 9780791475515, 298 pages, September 2008

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Table of contents

List of Figures, Tables, and Maps
Preface
Acknowledgments

1. Neighborhood Globalization

2.  Paris's Jewish Quarter: Unmade, Remade, and Transformed

3.  Berlin's Jewish Quarter: The Local History of the Global

4.  London's Jewish Neighborhoods: Nodes of Global Networks

5.  Residential Districts Versus Business Districts

6.  The Jewish Quarter as a Global Chronopolis

7.  Paris's City Hall and the Jewish Quarter

8.  Heritage Tourism: The Jewish Quarter as a Theme Park

9.  The Jewish Quarter, Other Diasporic Sites, and Israel

10.  Information Technology and the Jewish Neighborhood

11.  Neighborhoods of Globalization

Conclusion: Global Neighborhoods in the Global Metropolis

Notes
References
Index

Looks at how contemporary Jewish neighborhoods interact with both local and transnational influences.

Description

Global Neighborhoods analyzes the organization of everyday life and the social integration of contemporary Jewish neighborhoods in Paris, London, and Berlin. Concentrating on the post-Holocaust era, Michel S. Laguerre explains how each urban diasporic site has followed a different path of development influenced by the local milieu in which it is incorporated. He also considers how technology has enabled extraterritorial relations with Israel and other diasporic enclaves inside and outside the hostland.

Shifting the frame of reference from assimilation theory to globalization theory and the information technology revolution, Laguerre argues that Jewish neighborhoods are not simply transnational social formations, but are fundamentally transglobal entities. Connected to multiple overseas diasporic sites, their interactions reach beyond their homelands, and they develop the logic of their social interactions inside this larger network of relationships. As with all transglobal communities, there is constant movement of people, goods, communications, ideas, images, and capital that sustains and adds vibrancy to everyday life. Since all are connected through the network, Laguerre contends that the variable shape of the local is affected by and affects the global.

Michel S. Laguerre is Professor and Director of the Berkeley Center for Globalization and Information Technology at the University of California at Berkeley. He is the author of many books, including Diaspora, Politics, and Globalization and The Digital City: The American Metropolis and Information Technology.

Reviews

"This work is rich and of intellectual importance. It explores topics such as global and local communities (and their interconnection), diaspora, transnationalism, ethnic entrepreneurship, the Holocaust, prejudice, urban planning, multiculturalism, cultural tourism, assimilation, and the role of virtual communities and diversity within ethnic populations. " — Steven J. Gold, author of The Israeli Diaspora