Territorial stigma formation in the Israeli city of Bat Yam, 1950e1983: planning, people and practice Nir Cohen Department of Geography and Environment, Bar Ilan University, Ramat Gan 52900, Israel Abstract The paper analyses the process of territorial stigma formation in the case of the Israeli city of Bat Yam. Focusing on the period of 1950e1983, it argues that the stigma was constituted historically by a combination of three distinct attributes, namely its accelerated urban growth and (a lack of) appropriate planning, the (ethnic) composition of the population, and everyday practices of deviant conduct, primarily crime. Taken together, these produced the city as a socio-spatial mélange in which physical disorder, ethnic ‘others’ and explicit illegality reign. Using a wide range of primary and secondary sources, the paper seeks to refine understanding of the discursive mechanisms by which images of (types-of) people are juxtaposed with those of (types-of) places at particular historical junctures to create and sustain territorial stigmas. Ó 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Keywords: Territorial stigma; Israeli cities; Ethnicity; Environment; Planning Stigma is not something which dissolves in one minute, but I think we’re on the right track..The media, too, has changed its treatment towards Bat Yam. No longer a god-forsaken city. 1 In recent scholarly literature, the phenomenon of city branding is often explained with reference to processes of economic neo- liberalization that force urban administrations to re-invent the local in order to improve its image, stimulate urban development and attract new residents, tourists and investors alike. 2 For some places, such processes may prove particularly daunting, due to their entrenched reputation as dangerous, disorderly, or deviant. 3 For particular neighborhoods or whole towns, high rates of crime or specific ethno-racial composition e and often both e are often presented as potential impediments to regeneration, preventing the construction of a revitalized image. 4 And while a fair body of literature exists that explains the formation of positive urban images, mostly through the lenses of the so-called ‘cultural economy’, 5 relatively few studies pay attention to the social construction of stigmatized places. 6 Drawing upon Loïc Wacquant’s work, this paper analyzes the formation of a ‘territorial stigma’ in the Israeli city of Bat Yam. Focusing on the period between 1950 and 1983, it argues that the stigmatization process was fashioned historically by linking up three distinct place-related and people-related attributes, namely planning, population, and everyday practices of behavior. 7 Firstly, under the heading of planning, I am concerned with the accelerated process of urban e both population and physical e growth which city managers promoted during its formative years. Within less E-mail address: nir.cohen@biu.ac.il 1 Interview with Mayor Ehud Kinnamon, To get rid of the stigma, Two Cities (February 1986). 2 G. Evans, Hard-branding the cultural city: from Prado to Prada, International Journal of Urban and Regional Research 27 (2003) 417e440. 3 E. Avraham, Media strategies for improving unfavorable city image, Cities 21 (2004) 471e479. 4 R. Pain, Place, social relations and the fear of crime: a review, Progress in Human Geography 24 (2003) 365e388. 5 G. Richards and J. Wilson, The impact of cultural events on city image: Rotterdam, cultural capital of Europe 2001, Urban Studies 41 (2004) 1931e1952; A.J. Scott, The Cultural Economies of Cities: Essays on the Geographies of Image-Producing Industries, London, 2000; R. Paddison, City marketing, image reconstruction and urban regeneration, Urban Studies 30 (1993) 339e349; S.V. Ward, Selling Places: The Marketing and Promotion of Towns and Cities, 1850e2000, London, 1998. 6 But see E. Goode and N. Ben Yeuda, Moral Panic: The Social Construction of Deviance, Oxford, 2009. 7 I chose this period for two main reasons; first, because it corresponds approximately with the mayoralty terms of the city’s first two mayors, David Ben Ari (1950e1964) and Menachem Rothschild (1964e1974 and 1978e1983); and second, because Mayor Ehud Kinnamon (1983e1993) campaigned strongly against this entrenched stigma, partly reversing some of the qualities associated with it. His tenure, corresponding to what Goffman termed ‘stigma management’ merits a separate analysis and is therefore excluded from this paper (E. Goffman, Stigma: Notes on the Management of Spoiled Identity, New York, 1963, chapter 2). Contents lists available at SciVerse ScienceDirect Journal of Historical Geography journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/jhg 0305-7488/$ e see front matter Ó 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jhg.2012.07.004 Journal of Historical Geography 39 (2013) 113e124