In the wake of the Oslo Accords, Palestinians are increasingly restricted from physical and digital movement by Israeli settler colonialism. This research examines Palestinians’ use of decentralized digital tools to create digital spatial networks and the influence of these networks on Palestinian movement in fragmented physical space. Through digital mapping projects, Palestinians leverage open-source software, crowdsourced geo-spatial data, digitized archives, and transnational community connections to weave together fragments of information to imagine and create space. Simultaneously, Palestinians employ social networking sites and geographic positional systems to share mobility-related information to navigate their restricted physical landscape. By fusing “past” and “present,” the tools of the digital realm have allowed Palestinians to stitch together the collective knowledge of a dispersed community to create mobility. Ultimately, Palestinian’s use of digital networks to facilitate movement holds significance for all societies living under conditions of settler-colonialism as they foster intergenerational relationships, promote safety, and subvert oppressive physical and digital infrastructures.
Barakat, Hanna,
"Roots and Routes: Palestinians Navigating Im/mobility and Making Space Amidst Fragmentation"
(2022).
Development Studies.
Brown Digital Repository. Brown University Library.
https://doi.org/10.26300/s5b8-yj14
Development Studies is an interdisciplinary social science concentration. The study of complex processes of social and economic development has theoretical, methodological, practical and ethical dimensions. As such, it calls on a wide range of academic disciplines. Development Studies concentrators are …
