Gender,domestic space,and urban upgrading: a case study from Amman

The author discusses an urban upgrading project in the Wadi and Jabal areas of central Amman. These two areas, home to Palestinian refugees from the 1948 and 1967 exoduses, are among the most congested and poor in the central city. The Wadi borders a refugee camp and the Jabal is surrounded by low-income neighborhoods. Through the upgrading project, the state asserted control over every facet of women's lives, addressing most aspects of private and public life in the targeted communities. Women responded in a rally around the notions of domesticity and femininity, effectively managing public agencies and personnel in such a manner that the project was eventually turned to their advantage. Sections consider women in the domestic environment, relationships between women across households, the urban upgrading project, planning to restructure social relations, blurring the private and the public, and women's responses.