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AVINOAM MEIR(PhD)

info@mysite.com   +123-456-7890

Department of Geography and Environmental Development 
Ben Gurion University of the Negev, ISRAEL

ameir@bgu.ac.il
Avinoam Meir-Pass. Photo.JPG

About Me & My Research

About Me & My Research

I am a social and cultural geographer with a PhD from the University of Cincinnati in 1977 and since then a faculty member (now an Emeritus Professor) in the Department of Geography and Environmental Development at Ben Gurion University of the Negev, Beer Sheva, Israel. Soon after joining BGU I began to develop an interest in the Bedouin society in the Negev primarily from a humanistic perspective. My early interests focused on demographic processes among the Bedouin (such as demographic transition, fertility behavior, child mortality and aging) as well as provision of public services to this marginal society. Studying these issues surfaced their tight and inevitable relationships with profound social and cultural changes and state policy towards this minority.

This produced my major research track since then of understanding the complex relationships between a semi-nomadic pastoral society (as commonly termed then) and the modern state, focusing on its spatial aspects. These relationships were cast first within the political conceptual framework of 'centrifugal-centripetal' powers which embody the deep contrast between pastoral nomads in general, the Bedouin in particular, and the modern state, in this case the State of Israel. Within this wide umbrella I studied processes of territorialization, evolution of local Bedouin local government, inter-ethnic relationships, business entrepreneurship, and ecological management of livestock grazing. This culminated in an authored book entitled As Nomadism Ends: The Israeli Bedouin of the Negev, (1997), and two edited books: The Israeli Arab Society: Geographical Processes, 1993, Magness Press (in Hebrew) (with David Grossman) and Ethnic Frontiers and Peripheries: Landscapes of Development and Inequality in Israel, 1998, Westview Press (with Oren Yiftachel).

Of a more direct spatial nature, my most recent research path concerns Bedouin spatiality and production of historical and contemporary space including gender perspectives. Even more spatially profound, I attempt to decompose and reconstruct the Lefebvrian theory of production of space in order to put together a series of new concepts (such as consummate space, spatial intensity and more) for a more nuanced understanding of production of space by sub-cultural groups (such as the Bedouin) within modern urban space. I have also been studying Bedouin local spatio-cultural interaction with roads as geographical places within their social territory and the impact of planning roads on their indigenous spatiality. Most recently I have been studying the impact of indigenous production of space on the functionality of local government in the new state-established Bedouin towns.

My engagement with production of space among the Bedouin has recently entailed the development of new research avenues outside Bedouin society. One such theme involves relationship in space between geographical entities within the city. My thesis is that a more profound understanding of city space requires decomposing of the concept of city as a primary geographical entity into secondary ones that are themselves assuming spatial dimensions and studying their relationships with the city as part of producing city space. One such study explored the relationships between a university whose campus constitutes a geographical entity and the city within which it is located (the case of Sapir College and the City of Sderot in southern Israel). Another case study deals with military camps as geographical entities and the city they are neighboring with or within which they located throughout Israel. Another research direction engages with understanding the role of third sector/civil society organizations in production of space and shaping sense of place especially in peripheral areas. In recent years I have been involved in projects of measuring urban sustainability at local regional and global scales in general and among indigenous groups in particular. Graduate and post-doc students are involved in all these new research projects.

Publication

Selected Publications

Books

  • Grossman, D. and Meir A. (eds.) (1993), The Arabs in Israel-Geographical Processes, Jerusalem: Magness Press (Hebrew).

  • Meir, A. (1997), As Nomadism Ends: The Israeli Bedouin of the Negev, Boulder, Co.: Westview Press.

  • Yiftachel, O. and Meir, A. (eds.) (1998), Ethnic Frontiers and Peripheries: Landscapes of Development and Inequality in Israel, Boulder, Co.: Westview Press.

  • Karplus Y. and Meir A. (Eds.) (2013) Production of Bedouin Space in the Negev. Beer Sheva: Negev Center for Regional Development, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (Hebrew)

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Recent Articles

  • Meir, A. (2005) Bedouin, The Israeli State and Insurgent Planning: Globalization, Localization or Glocalization? Cities, 22: 201-215.

  • Meir A. and Baskind, A.  (2006) Ethnic Business Entrepreneurship among Urbanizing Bedouin in the Negev, Israel. Nomadic Peoples, 10: 71-79.

  • Meir, A. and Duenias, J. (2008) University, Community, and Shaping Regional and Local Identity: A Case Study in Israel. Journal of the World Universities Forum, 1(3):35-45.

  • Ben-Israel, A. and Meir, A. (2008) Urbanizing Pastoralists, Renaming Space and Reshaping Identities: The Case of the Bedouin Town of Hura. HAGAR-Studies in Culture, Polity and Identities, 8(2): 83-108.

  • Meir, A. (2009) Contemporary State Discourse and Historical Pastoral Spatiality: Contradictions in the Land Conflict between the Israeli Bedouin and the State. Ethnic and Racial Studies, 32(5): 823-843.

  • Meir, A. (2009) What Public, Whose Interest: The Negev Bedouin and the Roots of Planning from Below, Geography Research Forum, 29: 103-132

  • Meir. A. and Gekker, M. (2011) Gendered space, power relationships and domestic planning and design among displaced Israeli Bedouin. Women Studies International Forum, 34: 232-241.

  • Karplus, Y. and Meir, A (2013) The Production of Space: A Neglected Aspect Perspective in Pastoral Research, Environement and Planning D: Society and Space, 31: 23-42.

  • Karplus, Y. and Meir, A. (2014) From Congruent to Non-Congruent Spaces: Dynamics of Bedouin Production of Space in Israel, Geoforum, 52,180–192

  • Stossel, Z., Kissinger, M. and Meir, A. (2014) A multi-spatial scale approach to urban sustainability -  An Illustration of the domestic and global hinterland of the city of Beer-Sheva. Land Use Policy, 41: 498-505

  • Stossel, Z., Kissinger, M. and Meir, A. (2015) Assessing the state of environmental quality in cities: A multicomponent urban performance (EMCUP) index. Environmental Pollution, 206: 679-687.

  • Meir, A., Roded, B. and Ben-Israel, A. (2015) Indigenous Rights, Grey Spacing and Roads: The Israeli Negev Bedouin and Planning in Road 31. In Tidwell, A. and Zellen, B. (Eds.), Indigenous Peoples, Land and Conflict. Taylor and Francis, 190-219.

  • Meir, A. and Karplus, Y. (2015) From Consummate Space to Spatial Intensity: Intercultural Dynamics of Production of Space and its Political Significance. HaReshet HaGeografit, 8:40-60 (Hebrew)

  • Meir, A. and Karplus, Y. (2015) From Consummate Space to Spatial Intensity: Intercultural Dynamics of Production of Space and its Political Significance. HaReshet HaGeografit, 8:40-60 (Hebrew)

  • Stossel, Z., Kissinger, M. and Meir, A. (2016), Measuring the biophysical dimension of urban sustainability, Ecological Economics, 120: 153-163.

  • Roded, B., Ben Israel, A. and Meir, A., (2016) Indigenous Bedouin, The State and Gray Planning: The Case of Upgrading Road 31 in Israel, Geography Research Forum, 36, 33-50.

  • Stossel, Z., Kissinger, M. and Meir, A. (2017), Modeling the contribution of existing and potential measures to urban sustainability using the Urban Biophysical Sustainability Index (UBSI). Ecological Economics, 139: 1-8.

  • Meir, A. and Karplus Y. (2017) Production of space, intercultural encounters and politics: Dynamics of consummate space and spatial intensity among the Israeli Bedouin. Transactions, Institute of British Geographers, DOI 10.1111/tran.12210

  • Roded, B., Meir, A. & Ben Israel, A. (2017) Road as a Mobile Place: Road 31 and Arad Between Connection and Disconnection, Sotsyologia Israelit (Israeli Sociology), 19: 42-61 (Hebrew)

  • Meir, A. (2017) Recognition policy of Bedouin villages in Israel, marginalization and the ethic of bio-cultural diversity. In Pelc, Stanko and Koderman, Miha, (Eds.) Nature Tourism and Ethnicity as Drivers of (de) Marginalization: Insights to Marginality from a Perspective of Sustainability and Develoments. Berlin: Springer, 201-211.

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