The Modern Arab City A Socio-Linguistic Reading of Symptoms of Urbanization Phenomena

Abstract

Maqboul examines the interactive correlation between man, the built environment, and language. His paper begins with the hypothesis that symptoms of ‘diseased urbanization’, such as the absence of harmony and compatibility, appear on the level of human identity in the specter of violence, exclusion, and racist discrimination. In terms of urban identity in the built environment, the urbanization phenomenon is both visual and spatial. Turning to linguistic identities, one can observe linguistic alienation and fragmentation, and communicative turbulence.