Contested Spaces: Sites, Representations and Histories of Conflict

Contested Spaces is an interdisciplinary as well as global study of sites of conflict. It explores how certain architectures perpetuate conflict and how some have been transformed in post-conflict situations to carry particular versions of the past into the present. Within this collection of essays, different sites and different interpretations are juxtaposed. The book offers the perspectives of an architect, a cultural geographer, an oral historian, an art historian, an archaeologist, a film-maker, a scholar of American Studies and one of International Relations on sites in Australia, Cyprus, Germany, Iraq, Israel, Mexico, Northern Ireland, Northern France, Rwanda, South Africa and Scotland. The purpose of the scope and mix of Contested Spaces was to present new work to diverse audiences interested in the meaning of landscape and to extend the range of examples of dissonant heritage far beyond the most famous and frequently cited. This collection developed from a conference, ‘Contested Spaces: Representation and the Histories of Conflict,’ organised by Purbrick and Dawson at the University of Brighton, Faculty of Arts and Architecture, on 20-21 November 2004 supported by the Faculty’s Research Support Fund. It drew together a network of scholars from a range of disciplinary backgrounds. Collaborating over the selection of papers and commissioning of new writing, Purbrick then helped develop the essays with each contributor and, with Jim Aulich, worked on the editing of final drafts. The introduction to the book, ‘Sites, Representations, Histories’ is an independent piece of writing, which locates the study within a debate about relationships between space, history, memory and identity.