Continuity And Change In A Middle Eastern City: The Social Ecology Of Irbid City, Jordan

• Published in: Urban anthropology and studies of cultural systems and world economic development 2000-04, Vol.29 (1), p.69-96
• Main Authors: Shunnaq, Mohammed Suleiman, Schwab, William A.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Anthropology; Cities; Clans; Culture; Downtowns; Environmental social sciences; Families; Human Ecology; Jordan; Neighborhoods; Social Area Analysis; Social Change; Social classes; Social Space; Urban anthropology; Urban ecology
• ISSN: 0894-6019; 2328-1022

This article explores the internal structure of Irbid, the third largest city in Jordan. The paper employs a combined approach in its analysis that uses elements of social area analysis from human ecology and ethnographic analysis from cultural anthropology. Social area analysis, the theoretical frame of the paper, argues that changes occurring at the societal level are reflected first and most clearly in the use of space within a society's cities. Moreover, changes occur first in the primate city and then diffuse to other cities in the urban hierarchy. This appears to be the case in Jordan. Irbid displays a broad spectrum of neighborhood types. At the one extreme, one-third of the neighborhoods exhibit strong ethnic and clan attachments, extended family form, and rich kin networks. At the other extreme, one-fifth of the neighborhoods were classified as modern urban with nuclear families, low ethnic and clan attachments, high incomes and occupational status, and a cosmopolitan lifestyle. Approximately half the city's population lives in neighborhoods classified as transitional. These areas display the greatest growth, and they are where modern and traditional lifestyles meet and shape and transform each other.