What is it about?
Modelscapes are clusters of miniature architectural models that represent real or imagined spaces. They are frequently found in museums as representations of heritage, architecture, and collective identity. Modelscapes of Nationalism: Collective Memories and Future Visions offers a critical analysis of modelscapes, using case studies from Israel, to show how miniature representations of contested physical space participate in the construction of a sense of national identity and collective memory.
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Why is it important?
The book is an important study bridging architecture, the nature of representations and national narratives in a charged and contested landscape. Theoretically it advances a critical theory of modelscapes as a highly useful social theory concept. The theoretical insights are of great interest to and relevant for a broad readership interested in critical nationalism studies, critical geopolitics, critical architecture and social theory. Empirically the book sets out a rich analysis of four case studies of modelscapes in Israel, commenting on aspects of Israeli identity that political scientists and most sociologists ignore. The empirical content speaks to scholars in Israel studies but also to everybody interested in the interrelation between nationalism, space, and architecture.
Perspectives
As an architect, I have always been interested in architectural models. I see them not merely as means for representing architecture, but as potential political statements, models for future behaviour. I have chosen three case studies from Israel which represent key periods in the national narrative. I analysed their architectural qualities, their geographical positions, the cultural context of their creation and their social life, as times and publics change. I used these cases to explore the political function of models, how we see through them, as well as what we are taught to overlook. These cases provide interesting views of Israeli collective memory from a new angle. They also exemplify the process by which the representation of heritage becomes heritage itself.
Dr Yael Padan
University College London
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This page is a summary of: Modelscapes of Nationalism. Collective Memories and Future Visions, March 2017, Amsterdam University Press,
DOI: 10.5117/9789089649850.
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