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Un appel à contribution très ouvert...Date limite pour les soumissions : 1er mars 2010.Anthropology of the Middle East (AME) - Call for Papers - Thematic Focus: Cities of the Middle EastEditor: Dr Soheila ShahshahaniForthcoming: Volume 6, Issue 1 (Spring 2011)Today it is absolutely essential to pay new attention to urban areas in the Middle East. This concerns not only changes in political leadership and social, ethnic and kinship structures, but also changes in city planning and housing, as well as the typology of new cities: There are oil cities, frontier cities, port cities and many other types of cities that have grown during the past fifty years. Dubai is an extraordinary example of a small village which has become a cosmopolitan centre. Some cities have become centres of tourism, such as Istanbul with the double identity of an old city with its mosque and bazaar and a modern city with shopping centres bearing the signs of globalisation. Small resort cities in Turkey have given a boost to the tourist industry, affecting the construction of hotels, thedevelopment of entertainment and the production of handicrafts to suit the taste of tourists from all over the world. New means of transportation have brought great changes to the appearance of the cities and have, in some cases, such as Cairo or Tehran, made pollution an identifying feature of these metropolitan areas. Religious cities of the Middle East, such as Mecca, Najaf, Jerusalem and Mashhad, have developed very different new dynamics. War badly damaged some cities and a different life is overshadowing the centuries-old lifestyles of their inhabitants. In Iran, Châbahâr is an example of a port city striving to develop international features. On a smaller scale, we have frontier cities, such as Âstârâ in Gilân or Bâneh in Kordestân. Other provincial towns and even villages, such a Khorâsgân,Rudehen and many others, became small cities as a result of the establishment of Âzâd (‘Free’) Universities. The effects of trade, the presence of students and state urban support have changed the cost of living in these areas, altered their faces and brought many modernising and globalising features. Many other cities have been bombed and destroyed to the shame of humanity, such as Basra (see AME 2:2 in 2007); and what about Baghdad?These extraordinary changes have made it necessary to pose new questions about Middle Eastern cities. This issue of AME is intended to answer that need and bring together articles on urban areas of the Middle East and what it means to live in them today.Many questions can be raised comparing cities or the situation of a city at different periods, or considering a cluster of related cities and villages. We also look forward to articles concerning economic, social, ethical, religious or architectural situations. Articles could very well discuss new means of communication, whether established or artistic and avant-garde.