Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

In a changing society, the well remains a resource for Bedouin women

  • Article
  • Published:
Journal of Housing and the Built Environment Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Bedouin society is collective and has unique characteristics. In Israel, it has been undergoing far-reaching changes—in way of life and territory—since the establishment of the state in 1948. These changes, including the concentration of the formerly nomadic Bedouins in urban localities, the shrinkage of pasture, and the limitation of control over land and natural resources, have affected Bedouin women in particular by limiting their sphere of mobility and their roles. The aim of this qualitative study, conducted between 2015 and 2018 according to a phenomenological paradigm, was to examine the meaning of natural resources in the environment of Bedouin women, with a focus on a key resource—the well—and the loss of such resources. Therefore, the research question was, What is the meaning of the well in the lives of Bedouin women of three generations? The participants were 30 Bedouin women of three generations, recruited by the snowball method. The findings show that in the first generation the well ensured mobility and served as a meeting place. In the second generation it was experienced as a frightening and exhausting place. And in the third generation the family and the workplace replaced the experience formerly provided by the well. The loss of this natural resource was linked to a loss of connection to place.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Allassad Alhuzail, N. (2014). The meaning of “blessing” in the lives of three generations of Bedouin women. Affillia, Journal of Women & Social Work, 29(1), 30–42. https://doi.org/10.1177/0886109913509541

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Allassad Alhuzail, N. (2017). A place of many names: How three generations of Bedouin women express the meaning of home. Journal of Housing and the Built Environment, 33(2), 247–262. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10901-017-9546-5

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Amara, A., Abu-Saad, I., & Yiftachel, O. (Eds.) 2013. Indigenous (in)justice: Human rights law and Bedouin Arabs in the Naqab/Negev. Harvard University Press.

  • Amin, A. (2002). Spatialities of globalisation. Environment and Planning a, Economy and Space, 34(3), 385–399.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Atkinson, R. (1998). The life story interview: Sage University papers series on qualitative research methods (Vol. 44). Sage.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Bańka, A. (2002). Społeczna psychologia środowiskowa. Scholar. [Polish]

  • Brugiatelli, V. (2016). For an ethical and integrated way of life: from non-places to places of human interaction. Procedia—Social and Behavioral Sciences, 223, 58–61

  • Dinero, S. (1997). Social adaptation and control in the post-nomadic urban environment. Journal of Social Work and Policy in Israel, 1, 9–10.

    Google Scholar 

  • Eghbariah, R. (2017). The hyssop-soaked battle over the herbs in Palestinian cuisine and the laws protecting vegetation in Israeli law. Law, Society and Culture, 497–532. [Hebrew]

  • Enqvist, J., Tengö, M., & Boonstra, W. J. (2016). Against the current: Rewiring rigidity trap dynamics in urban water governance through civic engagement. Sustainability Science, 11(6), 919–933. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11625-016-0377-1

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Friedmann, J. (2010). Place and place-making in cities: A global perspective. Planning Theory & Practice, 11(2), 149–165. https://doi.org/10.1080/14649351003759573

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fullilove, M. T. (2004). Root shock: How tearing up city neighborhoods hurts America, and what we can do about it. One World/Ballantine Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hasan, M. (2010). The politics of honor: Patriarchy, the state and the murder of women in the name of family honor. Journal of Israeli History, Politics, Society, Culture, 2(1–2), 1–37. https://doi.org/10.1080/13531040212331295842

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Horlings, L. (2016). Connecting people to place: Sustainable place shaping practices as transformative power. Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability, 20, 32–40. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cosust.2016.05.003

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kedar, A., Amara, A., & Yiftachel, O. (2018). Emptied lands: A legal geography of Bedouin rights in the Negev. Stanford University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Kemp, S. P. (2010). Place matters: Towards a rejuvenated theory of environment for direct social work practice. In W. Borden (Ed.), The place and play of theory in social work practice (pp. 114–145). Columbia University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Konijnendijk van den Bosch, C. C. (2016). Tree agency and urban forest governance. Smart and Sustainable Built Environment, 5(2), 176–188. https://doi.org/10.1108/SASBE-07-2015-0017

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lewicka, M. (2012). Psychologia miejsca [Place psychology]. Scholar. [Polish]

  • Lewicka, M. (2011). Place attachment: How far have we come in the last 40 years? Journal of Environmental Psychology, 31(3), 207–230. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvp.2010.10.001

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lieblich, A., Tuval-Mashiach, R., & Zilber, T. (1998). Narrative research. Sage.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Low, S. M., & Altman, I. (1992). Place attachment: A conceptual inquiry. In I. Altman & S. M. Low (Eds.), Place attachment (pp. 1–12). Plenum Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Manuel-Navarrete, D. (2015). Double coupling: Modeling subjectivity and asymmetric organization in social-ecological systems. Ecology and Society, 20(3), 26. https://doi.org/10.5751/ES-07720-200326

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Martin, G. D. (2008). ‘“Place-framing”’ as place-making: Constituting a neighborhood for organizing and activism. Annals of the Association of American Geographers, 93, 730–750. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-8306.9303011

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Matthies, A., & Närhi, K. (2016). Introduction. In A. Matthies & K. Närhi (Eds.), The ecosocial transition of societies: The contribution of social work and social policy (pp. 1–13). Routledge.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • McAdam, S. (2015). Nationhood interrupted: Revitalizing Nêhiyaw legal systems. Purich.

    Google Scholar 

  • McClay, W. M., & McAllister, T. V. (Eds.). (2014). Why place matters: Geography, identity, and civic life in modern America. New Atlantis Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • McLean, J. (2017). Water cultures as assemblages: Indigenous, neoliberal, colonial water cultures in northern Australia. Journal of Rural Studies, 52, 81–89. https://doi.org/10.1016/J.JRURSTUD.2017.02.015

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Meyer, M. A. (2001) Our own liberation: Reflections on Hawaiian epistemology. Contemporary Pacific, 13(1), 124–48. http://hdl.handle.net/10125/13319

  • Murphy, A., Enqvist, J. P., & Tengo, M. (2019). Place-making to transform urban social–ecological systems: Insights from the stewardship of urban lakes in Bangalore, India. Sustainability Science, 14, 607–623. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11625-019-00664-1

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Nasasra, M. (2011). The Southern Palestine Bedouin tribes and British Mandate relations, 1917–48: Resistance to colonialism. The Arab World Geographer, 14(4), 305–335. https://doi.org/10.5555/arwg.14.4.3257233388705445

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Niezen, R. (2003). The origins of indigenism, human rights and the politics of identity. University of California Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Park, R. E. (1967). Social control and collective behavior. University of Chicago Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Raymond, C., Brown, G., & Weber, D. (2010). The measurement of place attachment: Personal, community, and environmental connections. Journal of Environmental Psychology, 30, 1–13. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvp.2010.08.00

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Relph, E. (1976). Place and placelessness. Pion.

    Google Scholar 

  • Said, E. W. (1999). After the last sky: Palestinian lives. Columbia University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Scannell, L., & Gifford, R. (2010). Defining place attachment: A tripartite organizing framework. Journal of Environmental Psychology, 30(1), 1–10. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvp.2009.09.006

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Scheffer, M., & Westley, F. R. (2007). The evolutionary basis of rigidity: Locks in cells, minds, and society. Ecology and Society, 12(2), 36.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Silberberg, S., & Lorah, K. (2013). Places in the making: How placemaking builds places and communities. MIT Department of Urban Studies and Planning. Massachusetts Institute OF Technology. https://dusp.mit.edu/sites/dusp.mit.edu/files/attachments/project/Places-in-the-Making_Executive-Summary-for-web.pdf

  • Stedman, R. C. (2016). Subjectivity and social-ecological systems: A rigidity trap (and sense of place as a way out). Sustainability Science, 11, 891–901. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11625-016-0388-y

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Stokols, D., & Shumaker, S. A. (1981). People in places: A transactional view of settings. In J. Harvey (Ed.), Cognition, social behaviour, and the environment (pp. 441–488). Erlbaum.

    Google Scholar 

  • Tamari, S. (2017). Bilha Givon as Sartre’s “third party” in environmental dialogues: Beyond dualism in gender, body, and environment. In D. A. Vakoch & S. Mickey (Eds.), Women and nature? Beyond dualism in gender, body, and environment (pp. 135–153). Taylor & Francis.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Tamari, S., Katoshevski-Kavari, R., Karplus, Y., & Dinero, S. (2016). Urban tribalism: Negotiating form, function and social milieu in Bedouin towns Israel. City Territory and Architecture, 3(2), 1–14. https://doi.org/10.1186/s40410-016-0031-3

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Tatour, L. (2019). Citizenship as domination: Settler colonialism and the making of Palestinian citizenship in Israel. SSRN Electronic Journal. https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3533490

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Tuan, Y. F. (1987). Space and place: The perspective of experience. University of Minnesota Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Tuck, E., McKenzie, M., & McCoy, K. (2014). Land education: Indigenous, post-colonial, and decolonizing perspectives on place and environmental education research. Environmental Education Research, 20(1), 1–23. https://doi.org/10.1080/13504622.2013.877708

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Tutty, L. M., Rothery, M. A., & Grinnell, R. M. (1996). Qualitative research for social workers. Allyn and Bacon.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wartman, F. M., Haller, T., & Backhaus, N. (2016). “Institutional shopping” for natural resource management in a protected area and indigenous territory in the Bolivian Amazon. Human Organization, 75(3), 218–229.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wilkinson, C. (2012). Social-ecological resilience and planning: An interdisciplinary exploration. Stockholm University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Williams, D. R. (2014). Making sense of “place”: Reflections on pluralism and positionality in place research. Landscape Urban Plan, 131, 74–82. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.landurbplan.2014.08.002

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Yahya-Younes, T. (2013). Space, gender and local politics in Palestinian society in Israel. In R. Halpern (Ed.), Where am I? Gender perspectives on space (pp. 241–203). Rach. [Hebrew]

  • Yiftachel, O., Roded, B., & Kedar, S. (2016). Between rights and denials: Bedouin indigeneity in the Negev/Naqab. Environment and Planning a, Economy and Space, 48, 2129–2161.

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Social Work, Sapir Academic College, D.N. Hof Ashkelon, 79165, Ashkelon, Israel

    Nuzha Allassad Alhuzail

Authors
  1. Nuzha Allassad Alhuzail
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Nuzha Allassad Alhuzail.

Ethics declarations

Ethical approval

The study received approval from the ethics committee of the academic institution where the author is employed. Each participant signed a consent form and kept a copy of it. to preserve anonymity, no identifying information is disclosed in this report, and participants’ remarks appear with assigned names.

Additional information

Publisher's Note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Alhuzail, N.A. In a changing society, the well remains a resource for Bedouin women. J Hous and the Built Environ 37, 1817–1833 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10901-021-09925-x

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10901-021-09925-x

Keywords

Search

Navigation