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Palestinian Children Forging National Identity through the Social and Spatial Practices of Territoriality

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Childhood and Nation

Part of the book series: Critical Cultural Studies of Childhood ((CCSC))

Abstract

This chapter explores the development of national identity for Palestinian children and their families through the lens of territoriality. It suggests that the development of national identity is a process to which territoriality contributes in the forms of both social and spatial practices that delineate who is included and excluded in a particular space. It includes social practices as a collective experience passed down with the historical memory and present oppression of the occupation. Territoriality includes spatial practices, because it is reproduced and enacted through the construction and regulation of everyday spaces, creating regimes of inclusion and exclusion that become central to children’s national identity construction. Ultimately, territoriality is a politically contested process that enacts particular geographies that are experienced and contested at multiple sites (Harker 2011).

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Zsuzsa Millei Robert Imre

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© 2016 Bree Akesson

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Akesson, B. (2016). Palestinian Children Forging National Identity through the Social and Spatial Practices of Territoriality. In: Millei, Z., Imre, R. (eds) Childhood and Nation. Critical Cultural Studies of Childhood. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137477835_8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137477835_8

  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, New York

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-349-55573-4

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