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Seminar Cities are back in town "Launch of the book Routledge Handbook of Middle Eastern Cities" (Haim Yacobi, Mansour Nasasra (eds.), Routledge, 2019)Organized by Sciences Po, CEE &#38; CERIWednesday 20 November 2019, 5-7 pm, Sciences Po, LIEPP’s Conference Room, 254, boulevard Saint-Germain, 75007 ParisPresenting the current debate about cities in the Middle East from Sana’a, Beirut and Jerusalem to Cairo, Marrakesh and Gaza, the book explores urban planning and policy, migration, gender and identity as well as politics and economics of urban settings in the region.This handbook moves beyond essentialist and reductive analyses of identity, urban politics, planning, and development in cities in the Middle East, and instead offers critical engagement with both historical and contemporary urban processes in the region. Approaching "Cities" as multi-dimensional sites, products of political processes, knowledge production and exchange, and local and global visions as well as spatial artefacts. Importantly, in the different case studies and theoretical approaches, there is no attempt to idealise urban politics, planning, and everyday life in the Middle East –– which (as with many other cities elsewhere) are also situations of contestation and violence –– but rather to highlight how cities in the region, and especially those which are understudied, revolve around issues of housing, infrastructure, participation and identity, amongst other concerns.More informationSpeakers:&#160;Eric Verdeil&#160;(Sciences Po, CERI) and&#160;Haim Yacobi&#160;(University College London, DPU)Discussants:&#160;Ozan Karama&#160;(Paris Est, LATTS, CNRS) and&#160;Hélène Thiollet&#160;(Sciences Po, CERI, CNRS)Contact:&#160;citiesarebackintown@sciencespo.frCompulsory registration&#160;- For the external people to Sciences Po: You will have to arrive 10 minutes before the beginning of the seminar and to provide you with your identity papers)