Desertification and Bedouin in the Middle East: Social Dimensions
This panel will present various social life aspects of the Bedouin living in southern Israel and Jordan. The panel will address their national identity formation as resulted from resettlement, their gender aspect in evolving economic forms of local women's business, the sense of place developed in their villages and the changing structure of tribe and tribalism.
The aim of the panel is to start a discussion about the social changes of Bedouin in Israel and Jordan as affected from a different political policy practiced in both states and from their different ethnic statuses (minority vs. majority).
Beside the interesting social dimensions to be presented; we aim to discuss what implications from the Jordanian case could shed light on the life of the Bedouin in Israel as a minority disadvantaged group.
Theme Organizers:
Dr. Sarab Abu-Rabia-Queder
The Jacob Blaustein Institutes for Desert Research (BIDR)
Show Biography
Dr. Sarab Abu-Rabia-Queder is a lecturer at the Department of Man in the Desert at BIDR. Her studies focus on the impact of cultural-social transitions on identity, space and social change in desert regions among the Bedouin in Israel and in Jordan. Her current 2 studies focus on informal economic patterns among Bedouin women in Israel and in Jordan and on social -gender changes among Bedouin women in Israel as a result of changing spaces.
She is the author of 'Excluded and Loved: Educated Bedouin Women's Life Stories' (Hebrew University/Magness press), the co-author of 'Palestinian Women in Israel: Identity, Power Relations and Coping (both in Hebrew) and the co-editor of a special issue of HAGAR 2009: 'The Politics of Gendered Development'.
Invited Guests:
Dr. Steven Dinero
Philadelphia University, United States
Title Of Abstract:
Negev Bedouin Identity/Identities Development In The Post-Nomadic Era
Show Biography
Steven C. Dinero is Associate Professor of Human Geography at Philadelphia University. He has published extensively on such topics as community planning and development, gender, identity formation, religion, education, and tourism in post-nomadic environments. His recent work addresses the impacts of globalization and climate change upon indigenous peoples, and the role of new technologies in helping such communities respond and adapt to these environmental challenges. His forthcoming book, Settling for Less: The Planned Resettlement of Israel's Negev Bedouin (Oxford and New York: Berghahn) will appear this coming November, 2010.
