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Generational Consciousness as a Resource for Memory and Future Visions in Nablus, Palestine
Abstract by Dr. Michaelle L. Browers On Session IV-16  (Generations)

On Tuesday, November 12 at 2:30 pm

2024 Annual Meeting

Abstract
Informed by Mannheim’s (1952) highly influential understanding of how political generations (cohorts who experience common political events during their formative years that continue to influence their worldview) tend to contest ideas inherited from their parents’ generation, and how these groups can then become the source of new values and new political movements, this paper analyzes the role of generational consciousness in the (re)construction of memory and future visions and the character of political thought emerging out of subsequent generations from Nablus. Based on archival research, interviews and focus groups, this project broaches the following questions: What have been the generation-formative events in the history of Nablus and what is the character of generational consciousness and varieties of political thought associated with each? How does each generation engage earlier generations? Further, how can one address these questions while both remaining aware of the ways in which current and future thinking is influenced by history and remaining attentive to how Palestinians produce and envision knowledge in ways both connected to existing realities and limitations without being entirely constrained by it (Joronen et al 2021)? This analysis is informed by a rich body of scholarship in Arabic in the form of both primary texts documenting the experiences and ideas of political actors from these generations (e.g., Darwaza 1993, Hilal and Farraj 2019, Kayyali 1967) and numerous secondary texts by Palestinian scholars whose focus on generation already attests to the saliency of generational consciousness for understanding this context (e.g., Azawza 2021, Dabbagh 2016/2017, Khalidi 2019, Taraki 2023). I demonstrate how generational formation impacts the character of political debates, contentious politics, and aspirational, future visions in this context, with as much attention to what a political generation shares (generational consciousness) as to what are the points of contention and even innovation across political generations. While the larger project looks at multiple generations that have formed in Nablus, starting with the Arab Revolt of 1936-1939, the work that will be presented in this paper (book chapter) hones in on two generations—one that emerges around the time of the killing of the teenager Lina al-Nabulsi in 1976 and a second on that forms with the first Intifada of 1987-1990--in order to critically examines the notion of “generational consciousness” in relation to other forms of consciousness (class, national, global).
Discipline
Political Science
Geographic Area
Palestine
West Bank
Sub Area
None