Boundaries in Interaction: The Cultural Fabrication of Social Boundaries in West Jerusalem

Abstract

Boundary work projects are relevant in any social context, but they seem to carry particular significance in multicultural or multinational and highly contested urban settings. This study examines how daily artifacts such as local newspapers are used by various urban social groups in their local boundary work projects. the analysis is based on the particular case of West Jerusalem, and focuses on how Jewish communities use the popular local Jerusalem newspaper Kol Ha'Ir (“Whole of the City”). the study shows that local newspapers have three functions: (1) they are important components in the local cultural tool kit that various groups use and relate to; (2) they are cultural objects exploited by communities to redefine and regulate their particular identities and to sustain a common ground for local solidarity; and (3) they serve as mechanisms that construct and maintain an ethnonational front toward rival communities within their urban space. This study also suggests that in order to facilitate such a complex task of boundary work, cultural objects must be polysemous. First, they should produce to some degree a consensus among their various consumers on their content and social significance. Second, they should permit a range of interpretations regarding their particular social meaning for each group.