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Introduction: uneasy neighbours: proximity, sociability and difference in the colonial city, c. 1870–1940

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 June 2025

Avner Ofrath Open the ORCID record for Avner Ofrath [Opens in a new window]  and
Norman Aselmeyer
Avner Ofrath*
Affiliation:
Friedrich Meinecke Institute of History, Freie Universität Berlin, Berlin, Germany
Norman Aselmeyer
Affiliation:
Wadham College, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK
*
Corresponding author: Avner Ofrath; Email: avner.ofrath@fu-berlin.de
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Abstract

This introductory essay establishes the site of the neighbourhood and the social fact of urban proximity as crucial, conflicted and volatile conditions of colonial society. We show that the colonial neighbourhood was a highly contested space where diverse populations, stark inequalities and asymmetric power distributions played out in the most palpable manner. At the same time, it also emerged as an incubator of sociability, solidarity and protest across communal lines. The constant tension between physical proximity and profound inequality defined much of the social dynamics in the colonial city, making neighbours and neighbourhoods a most promising terrain of enquiry.

Type
Introduction
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Urban History , First View , pp. 1 - 9
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© The Author(s), 2025. Published by Cambridge University Press

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References

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