Contention, Volume 8, Issue 1, Summer 2020, 70–92 © Contention doi:10.3167/cont.2020.080106 • ISSN 2572-7184 (Print) • ISSN 2330-1392 (Online) Material Obstacles to Protest in the Urban Built Environment Insights from Jordan Jillian Schwedler Abstract: How has the Jordanian state sought to police protests through control of material space? How have other changes to the built environment limited possibilities for protests? This article articulates the beginnings of a new typology for understanding how changes to the built environment can create obstacles to pro- tests. I identify three distinct changes that have affected spaces of protest: (1) the spatial expansion of the city to accommodate population growth, absorb two major waves of refugees since 2003, and facilitate massive foreign investment in urban mega- projects; (2) infrastructural development, including urban sprawl, new bypass roads and overpasses, and the services necessary for the construction of megaprojects; and (3) the policing of spaces where protests had previously taken place, in part by rendering them inaccessible. I draw on archival material, elite interviews, and ethnographic observation of protests in Amman, Jordan. Keywords: Amman, built environment, infrastructure, Jordan, policing, protests, urban planning In 2003, I was sitting with some activists at a café in Amman, Jordan, discussing recent changes to the Public Gathering Law. Organizers of protest events were required to obtain a permit to hold any kind of demonstration or march, a restriction introduced by an emergency law issued while the Jordanian Parliament was not in session. Previously, protest organizers need only notify the municipality of their plans. After a long conversation about protest permits, fnancial and legal con- straints on protesting, and other obstacles affecting public gatherings,